Curious Dragons
by mikepd
Summary: Ben Tennyson lies and now is stuck going on a trip with his grandpa.  While exploring a little, Ben finds a wound dragon and helps him out.  The dragon his helps out become curious about Ben and seeks him out.  BeVin no likey yaoi please don't read.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its other incarnations.

**Hey everyone! It's been a while since I wrote a BeVin and the idea for this one came from watching How to Train your Dragon. It's a great movie and I recommend it to everyone. Okay so a quick overview of this world. Dragons are real, and Max Tennyson is a famous Dragon Rider who started a school to help future generations of dragon riders. Ben stays with Max while Gwen stays with Verdona, due to her magical abilities. Well that's all I'm telling you for now so read if you wanna know what happens next.**

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Curious Dragon**_

_Chapter 1_

In the city of Bellwood, the capital city of Paragon, there was a school for those who possess the potential to ride a dragon. Those who have this potential are called Dragon Riders, and are taken to the Plumber's Academy for their training. The current headmaster of the school was Max Tennyson, a famous ex-dragon rider. Students who come to the school learn almost everything they need to know about training a dragon as well as taking care of them. However once they reach their final year at the school, they are sent out on a quest to find a dragon to train.

Before the last Dragon Rider War, the Rider's council would appoint a dragon to a rider, but because of the lost of so many young dragons, they must now search one out and gain its respect before the dragon will allow someone to ride it.

While many young riders go on this quest, few return with dragons. As another class of riders prepared to go out, the grandson of Max Tennyson, Benjamin, went into town to purchase a few basic necessities for his grandfather. As he walked into town, Ben smiled to himself thinking of how much fun it'll be not to have his grandfather at the house for a week. While it was true Ben loved his grandfather, the older man would always try and push Ben into joining the dragon riders. Ben always refused to join, saying that he didn't have any interest in them, and with his grandfather gone for a week, the young man could relax without having to hear anymore of his grandfather's talk of dragon riding.

Though it seems fate had something else in store for him. As he exited a small store, he came face to face with one of the reasons why he never wanted to be a dragon rider. Ben gulped as he tried to go back into the store, but when he heard his name being called, he had no choice to turn around or have to buy more equipment for his grandfather. So Ben turned around and faced Cash, a very talented dragon rider, but a horrible person. The tall lanky raven looked Ben over and smirked.

"Well Ben it's nice to see you again. So I hear your grandpa's goin' on his annual dragon training quest with the new batch of seniors," Cash said looking down at Ben, as his dragon JT stood behind him.

"Yeah grandpa is excited about it. He says this year will be the year that he gets more than two people to come back with dragons. We've gotten reports that wild dragons have landed in the Talma Woods, and that's were grandpa plans on taking his recruits this year," Ben replied with a fake smile.

"That's good we need a few good riders, but doesn't that mean you're gonna be _alone_ for the next week?" Cash asked as he already knew the answer to that question.

Ben groaned mentally, he really didn't like Cash, but he knew if he wanted to get away from this dragon rider safely, he had to be as nice as possible. "No not really, this year, I ummm…volunteered to go with grandpa so he has someone to hang out with while the recruits are out in the woods," Ben quickly lied.

Just as Ben's lie passed his lips, Ben felt a heavy hand clap over his shoulder. Ben quickly turned to see the smiling face of his grandfather turned towards him. "Really Ben, when were you going to tell me you were going to volunteer to help watch this old man," Max laughed as his grin became noticeably larger. It was then that Ben found himself trapped. If he told his grandpa he was lying so Cash would stop flirting with him, his grandfather would be crushed and Cash would find a reason to bother him the entire week. Ben then smiled at his grandfather and took the road of the lesser of these two evils.

"Well I was going to wait until dinner, but now that you know, surprise!" The young Tennyson cheered as he looked into his grandfather's eyes. He really wanted to stay home and veg out for a week, but now he was stuck going into the wilderness with his grandfather. The only up side he could see to this was that he'd get to see a lot of sexy guys run around the camp with no shirts on. At that thought, some of his fake cheeriness turned real.

With everything said and done, he and his grandfather went back into the store and got him all the things he would need as well as a book or two for the young man to read.

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Okay I know it's short but think of this as an intro, so if you wanna read more let me know what you think. TTFN…**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its other incarnations.

**Hey everyone I'm back, and I was surprised to get three reviews the first day! So I decided to get my tail in gear and write chapter 2 earlier than planned. Oh and a big thank you to yaoifanvane, Otaku Maiden, and Dario Argento Syndrome for their support and I will dedicate this chapter to them. Well, now that that's over, let's begin with the chapter two.**

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Curious Dragons**

_Chapter 2_

After another two hours in several different shops, and all the while being followed by Cash, who offered his assistance, Ben and Max returned home tired and worn down more than usual. Because Ben had never gone with his grandfather on one of these quests, Max wanted Ben to have everything he needed to enjoy himself, as well as learn to survive on his own a little. As night fell upon the city, Ben walked into his room and went to the bottom of his closet, and picked up a small green painted wooden box. This was what he kept some of his most prized possessions in.

Ben reached to the very bottom of the box and pulled out a pendent his parents gave him when he was four. The pendent had ancient designs carved into it with the picture of the legendary black dragon. The black dragon was the most sought after dragon in the entire world; legend says that the black dragon was given the ability to shape shift into a human, and its fire was stronger than any other dragons. No one knew if the legend was true because black dragons were now extinct after many centuries of hunting them for their bones to make jewelry, weapons, and for sport.

Ben looked at the pendent and began to tear up as a painful memory tried to fight its way to the surface of Ben's mind; however the boy pushed it back and pulled the pendent over his head and let it hang from his neck. '_It's time I start facing my problems, and this damn pendent will be the first,_' Ben thought as he felt the metal pendent beat his skin lightly. Placing the box back inside his closet, Ben went to bed early, knowing his grandfather loved getting an early start on these quests.

~~~~~~~~~~~Time Change~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as Ben predicted, Max was up early the next morning. He and Ben went over their supplies and equipment four times, making sure they had everything they needed. Once Max was satisfied, he and Ben pulled their packs on their backs and started off for the Plumbers Academy. Upon arriving at the school, Ben met the other founder of the Plumber's Academy, Evan Paradox, an ageless dragon rider, but he appeared to be in his late thirties. The time-walker, as some called him, smiled as he saw Max and Ben. "Ah, Maxwell, it's good to see you were able to make it this time, and I see you were able to talk young Benjamin into joining us this year," Paradox said with a smile. Max smiled, however he shook his head no. Paradox lifted one eyebrow in curiosity, just before Max explained.

"Ben _volunteered_ to come this year. He said he wanted to keep me company, but I think he just wanted to get away from Cash." Max laughed as Ben's jaw dropped at the realization that his grandfather knew what was going on the entire time. Ben crossed his arms across his chest and mumble under his breath about sneaky old people, for which Max got a good laugh from. Paradox smiled and told the Tennysons that all the boys were waiting in the courtyard. Max nodded his head and told Ben to follow him. As the group of three made their way to the courtyard, Ben felt slightly nervous. He'd never been on one of these quests before, but from what he had been told, they were very dangerous.

After a moment or two, they reached the courtyard and soon were met with loud cheers from the students. As Ben stared out into the crowd of twenty or so students, he felt rather small compared to them. Most of the students were Ben's age, but many of them had been at the academy from a young age, so their bodies were well developed with muscle. Some of the guys noticed Ben and smiled or smirked at him. It only took that much attention to cause Ben to blush madly. Looking away from them, Ben asked his grandfather where he wanted Ben to put his bag. Max told him to place it with the other bags that belonged to the teachers and chaperones. Ben made his way towards the pile, but was soon stopped when his bag was taken from him.

The young brunette turned around to see someone's chest. Ben took a step back and looked up to see a handsome face with dazzling blue eyes. As Ben took a closer look, he notice the guy had long raven-colored hair with a long streak of white that went from the start to the back of his head. Once Ben had a full inspection, he was addressed by the older teen. "You must Benjamin, Max Tennyson's grandson." Ben became slightly ticked off after this guy referred to him as _Max Tennyson's grandson_, so he answered hotly, "Yeah, what of it?"

This seemed to excite the guy as he smiled at Ben. If there was one a quick way to get Ben in a good mood, it was to have a cute guy smile at him, which the guy who took his bag was. Ben smiled back before he continued. "It's nice to meet you Ben, your grandpa talks about you a lot. Oh and my name's Pierce. If you need anything while we're out on the quest, let me know."

Ben nodded his head as the guy placed his bag with the other chaperone bags and walked off towards his friends. The young brunette watched Pierce walk off and thought that he would really enjoy himself on this trip.

It took two hours until a hover-truck came and picked up everyone's equipment, and a few moments later a bus came and took them to the edge of the Talma woods. Once everyone was off the bus, they found their bags not too far from where they were dropped off. Max instructed everyone to grab their bags and follow him into the forest. Ben quickly scooped up his bag and ran over to his grandfather. Ben soon found another reason why he didn't want to become a dragon rider during the bus ride. The older students were a bunch horny, sex-deprived teens, and with Ben being fresh meat to them, most of the seniors flirted with him shamelessly.

As the group of rider trainees reached their third hour of walking in the hilly wilderness, Ben began to question if some of the guys had graduated by chance. A few of the trainees were complaining silently about how tired they were and getting hungry, and were sweating like they were running a marathon, while he barely broke a sweat through the hilly terrain of the forest. Ben shook his head and followed his grandfather up another hill, hopefully for the last time. The guy who was behind Ben was complaining the most and it was driving him insane. After another few minutes, Max told everyone they reached a good place to set up camp.

Once Ben got the chance to look around, he saw that his grandfather was right. Nearby the site was a river giving them access to water. Ben looked around and noticed the air was warm and moist, and with an adventurous grandfather always taking you on trips like this, Ben figured that there would be a hot spring nearby. He smiled as he set his pack down and began to take out his tent. As Ben started to take out a few pieces and put them together, the brunette heard a familiar voice calling his name. He turned around and noticed Pierce was running over to him. Ben smiled and waved at the other male as Pierce came to a stop right next to him.

"Hey Ben, do you want me to set up your tent for you?" Pierce asked hoping to get on Ben's good side. Ben stood up and looked at his tent. Ben knew how to put the thing up and honestly thought Pierce was sweet to ask. "Thanks Pierce but I've got it. I may not look it, but grandpa's taken me camping a lot and taught me a how to survive out here," Ben explained. Pierce seemed impressed with Ben's background so he left the young brunette to set up his tent.

After about ten minutes, Ben had his tent set up and was moving the last piece of equipment into the tent. The tent Ben had gotten was a magically enhanced luxury tent. These tents were enchanted to be much larger than they appeared to be. Inside the tent, it was about the size of a decent-sized bedroom. Ben had set it up with an Insta-Flex queen-sized air bed in the farthest corner of the room. Next to it was a small nightstand with his laptop and the two new books he bought. In front of the air bed was a dresser with two weeks' worth of clothes inside. For once, Ben was glad his grandmother was a powerful sorceress. The elderly woman had taught her loving husband a few spells like this to make his trips more comfortable and it always amazed Ben that his grandfather had learned such an incredible spell.

Once Ben was finished, he walked outside to see that everyone else was almost done unpacking. When Ben went to look for his grandfather, he found him near the tent that was being used as the kitchen. Ben grimaced as he thought of his grandfather's cooking. The food his grandfather cooked was edible and was very good; it was just the ingredients that made you want to never try the stuff. Ben quickly went over to the tent and greeted the students who were cooking lunch. When Ben checked his watch, he was surprised to see it was only 12:30.

When Max was done talking to the students, with some of them looking slightly green around the gills, he turned to Ben and smiled. "Hey Ben, did you finish setting up your tent already?"

Ben mimicked the smile and replied, "Yeah I finished. So where's the hot spring around here? Knowing you, you picked this place because there's one close by."

Max laughed as he pushed Ben away from the tent and walked off. He stopped when he noticed Ben wasn't walking with him. When he turned around, he saw Ben had stopped where he had pushed his grandson just a moment ago. Max made a hand motion for Ben to follow him and soon the two were off towards the hot springs. The two walked and talked about anything and everything they could think of. Max asked Ben about school, and Ben merely told him he was passing and hates most of his teachers. Max laughed and looked at his grandson. The young brunette looked more and more like his parents everyday and it hurt Max's heart to know he may not be there much longer to see the kind of man Ben would grow up to become.

Before Max could think anymore on that subject, a horn sounded. Max looked up in urgency and scanned the area. Ben moved closer to his grandfather knowing the meaning of that horn call. It was a warning that wild dragons had been seen and to be careful. The older man turned to Ben and told him, "Ben listen to me, get back to camp and tell Paradox to send the students out. These wild dragons aren't going to be here forever so it's best for the students to try and find them now before the dragons move again."

The brunette nodded his head and ran at full speed towards the camp. Max stayed behind and eyed the area closely. Just when Max was about to let his guard down, he heard the snapping of a twig behind him. The old man moved with a speed that a man his age shouldn't have, and pulled out a knife to face his foe. In the blink of an eye, Max's knife was knocked out his hand and was sent sailing into a nearby tree. As Max looked at the dragon before him, he stared in awe at the one who was before him.

Max had seen many dragons before, but the one before him was an extremely rare one, a golden dragon. The golden dragon was a dragon with golden scales covering its long slender form. Piercing ruby-red eyes stared back at Max, with a matching colored gem embedded in its head. On top of its head were two large dark gold horns going into the air, but then facing off towards the back of its body. Along its back was slightly blonde hair that flowed down the graceful creature's entire back until it reached its tail. The dragon also had four legs, the front pair of legs were centered where the dragon's neck and chest connected and the second pair were located closer to the creatures tail.

The ruby-eyed dragon somehow smirked at Max and began to speak. "It's nice to finally meet you Maxwell Tennyson, one of the four Master Dragon Riders."

Upon hearing the dragon speak his name, Max bowed before the dragon remembering it was customary to bow to the ruler of the dragons. Yes, a golden dragon ruled over all dragons; because there were no more black dragons, it was up to the golden dragons to keep the dragon world from falling apart.

The golden dragon smiled, in its own way and told Max to rise. Max then addressed the king of dragons quickly. "Your majesty, why have you left your home in the mountains? I was told you would only leave if there was some great threat."

The dragon sighed and began to explain to the dragon rider what was going on. "Maxwell Tennyson, everything back at the dragon palace is falling apart. There are dragons that wish to wipe out humanity for the loss of our children during the Dragon Rider War. These dragons have now organized themselves and are under the command of my brother Aggregor. He will wipe out as many humans as he can, and rule over the remaining ones as well as the dragons. I spoke against such a thing but they will no longer listen to my words. So to prepare you all for the upcoming war, I have brought as many young dragons who seek a partner dragon rider. Also I must tell you that there is now a black dragon in this world. He was born from my family, but he did not want to rule so he fled several months ago. If I know him well enough, he is somewhere around here. He may be in his human or dragon form. I'm never sure what's going on in my child's head, but nonetheless, if you can find him a suitable rider, you may be able to talk the other members of my court to help aid you in the fight.

Aggregor will not just get dragons to join him, but humans as well. He will promise them the world so he may gain the power over humans and dragons. This cannot happen, so please get your students and as many the other riders ready as you can."

When the dragon king was done, Max felt more depressed than before. '_Another war? You just got Paragon back on track from the last one. How will I explain all of this to King Victor Validus?_' Max ranted inwardly. As if reading his mind, the dragon king looked at Max and spoke again. "I will accompany you and your students' back to Bellwood and explain things to your king. I know things have been hard for you humans after the war, just as it's been for us. I wish to recreate the bond we had years ago, so this is one reason why I help you now."

Max smiled and said, "Thank you, your majesty, but how will you get into town without people freaking out about a golden dragon?" The dragon king smiled as he closed his eyes and the gem on his forehead began to glow. The golden dragon's eyes began to glow from a fiery red colors to a cold onyx black. As his eyes began to change, the dragon king's body began to change as well. The long slender body of the golden dragon began to shrink in size. From his back, wings started to grow, though they were small at first, they grew into large wings. His golden scales began to turn dull and dark till they were a dark navy blue. The dragon's head and neck began to widen as the golden horns split and spread across his face.

When the king of dragon's metamorphosis ended, Max stared at a more common dragon, well more common than a golden dragon anyway. The king of dragons shook his new form a few times to get all the kinks out of his new body. When the dragon king looked at Max, the older man suddenly awoke from his trance. "Incredible, I didn't know golden dragons were capable of changing into other dragons." Max said still in awe.

The king laughed a bit before he asked, "Well, why else do you think they made the golden dragons the leaders of the other dragons?"

Max nodded his head in understanding and said, "So your majesty, have you decided on who's going to be your rider while you're in this form?"

"I'm already looking at my rider, Maxwell. You are the only human I trust to get on my back. You have proven time and time again that dragons were not tools of war, but beings that should be respected. So this is why you shall be my rider and _I_ shall be your dragon."

Max was truly honored to hear those words so he accepted the king's decision. "Well then, your majesty, there will be two things we will have to work on."

"Oh, and what's that, Maxwell?" the dragon king asked as he turned his head to the side.

Max chuckled as he explained. "First off, you must call me Max, Maxwell is too formal for partners, and two, what can I call you other than your majesty?"

"You may call me Devlin."

Ben arrived to the camp within a few minutes and told Paradox what his grandfather told him. Paradox nodded his head, and then turned to face the campsite. "Alright boys! Max is giving you permission to go ahead and search out a dragon. Remember; you must prove to them that you are a worthy rider or they may burn you to a crisp. Normally, they will battle and if you can impress them, it will end quickly but never assume anything. Now move out!"

After a large cheer came from the group of students, they ran back to their tents. After that, they all began to run in different directions.

Ben watched and felt the excitement in the air. He was happy for the students but he was still worried about his grandfather. A moment later, Paradox placed his hand on Ben's shoulder. "Benjamin, Max will be fine. He's not going to leave you just yet. I know him too well to leave you alone."

The young brunette turned to face Paradox and smiled thankfully. He then told him he was going to his tent to take a nap.

It was half an hour later before Max returned to the camp with a Night Fury walking beside him. Paradox looked astonished to see the dragon with Max, but once his old friend explained to him what was happening, Paradox seemed to calm down some.

"Well this poses a problem. If this Aggregor does wish to rule over humans, then he will more than likely try to recruit the enemies of Paragon and the Dragon Riders. I don't have to tell you that even if a few of our enemies join Aggregor, we'll be in a great deal of trouble."

"Yes I know, but if we can get the prince of dragons to join us then our chances of surviving will increase," Max replied.

The transformed king sighed as he shook his head. "It's true, if my son does join us our chances of survival will improve, but he wants nothing to do with the upcoming war, and fled a few months ago."

Paradox shook his head; however he turned his head when he heard movement coming from a nearby tent. When he looked to see what was going on, he noticed Ben coming out. A moment later, Max noticed his grandson and called the boy over.

It took a few moments for Ben to come outside, but once he had completely woken up, he noticed the Night Fury and rushed over to it. "Grandpa, it's a Night Fury!" Ben shrieked in excitement. Max smiled since Ben had never really shown any excitement towards a dragon in many years. Then Max remembered that the Night Furies were always Ben's favorite type of dragon. The transformed golden dragon looked at Max confused as Ben hugged him and scratched his scales. However after a moment, it didn't bother him as much as he leaned into Ben's touch. For a dragon, scratching ones scales around the neck was very relaxing; well, more like a massage to a dragon.

After a few moments, Ben looked to his grandfather and asked, "So who's the lucky guy to get such a sweet dragon?"

Max chuckled and replied, "You're looking at him." Apparently Ben was confused by the answer, so Max pointed to himself. Much to Max surprise, Ben's good mood swiftly vanished.

"Grandpa what do you mean this is your dragon?" Ben asked as he stopped scratching the dragon king and glared towards his grandfather. Max laughed sheepishly knowing that this was going to set Ben off.

"Well Ben, when I had you run off, I found him; well honestly, he found me and said he brought others with him and he decided that I was fit to be his partner."

Ben quickly turned his glare to the dragon and pointed his finger at it. "You choose someone else this instant! My grandfather is not getting on another dragon as long as I live."

The dragon king looked at Ben and shivered slightly from the waves of anger coming off the petite brunette. Max quickly came to the dragon's aid and said with finality, "Ben you can't be mad at him for choosing me. Besides I accepted the invitation so what's done is done."

Ben quickly turned back to his grandfather with a hurt expression, which quickly turned back to a vivid glare. "FINE! If you wanna be a hero so bad go ahead, but don't expect me to watch." With that said Ben went back to his tent and quickly packed it up and left the campsite.

Paradox looked to Max confused and asked, "Shouldn't we go after him?"

Max sighed and shook his head no. "Ben just needs to adjust and accept that I'm still a dragon rider, dragon or no dragon."

Paradox nodded his head as a thought quickly popped into it. "Uh, Max, Devlin, isn't the forest filled with dragons waiting for a rider? Ben's not a rider and they will notice this right away."

Max reacted quickly as Paradox finished speaking. He turned to Devlin and asked, "Devlin, do you think you can tell the dragons you brought with you to leave Ben alone if they see him?"

Devlin nodded his head yes, but then stopped as he picked up a weak signal. "Well I can tell the dragons I brought, but my son, I cannot. He's been blocking all telepathic links I have with him so he can't be found. However, Kevin will more than likely avoid being seen by all humans especially with dragon riders in the area." Max began to relax at that thought, but one should never tempt fate.

Ben was a half hour walk away from the riders' campsite before he stopped and set up his tent again. The young Tennyson was still upset with his grandfather about him becoming an active rider again. Max retired from being an active rider ten years ago, and for Ben it was the best thing in the world. Sure he didn't like that Max was the headmaster of the Dragon Rider School, but at least he knew that his grandfather would come home every day. It was Ben's greatest fear that if his grandfather became an active rider again, he would go out on a mission and never return home. To Ben, his actions were justified, even though a part of him was being very childish.

It took a few minutes for Ben to calm down and once he did, he took out his new book and began to read it. While Ben was reading, something fell from the sky and landed nearby. The shock and sound of the object hitting the ground scared Ben half to death, but what worried him the most was waiting for him outside. Slowly but surely, Ben made his way to the opening of his tent and took a cautious look outside. As he walked outside, everything looked normal, but Ben knew from the vibrations he felt and the noise he heard, that something was out there. Ben took an attentive look up to the tree tops and found the diagonal stream of broken tree limbs. He followed the trail of broken tree limbs over a hill and was surprised by what he found.

Lying on the ground was a dragon with midnight black scales, a red flaming mane of hair, and dull golden horns. Ben looked over the fallen beast and noticed he was caught in an odd contraption. The weapon seemed to have three metal cables with an iron ball hanging from the end, extending from a triangular base. As Ben continued his observations, he found a large cut on the dragon's hind leg. Ben ran back to his tent and grabbed his first aid kit and rushed to help the injured dragon. Ben knelt next to the injured leg, and began to clean the wound, trying not to wake the unconscious dragon.

While Ben cleaned and bandaged the dragon's wound, the unconscious dragon slowly regained its senses. It felt the wound on its leg and the hands that were messing with it. However, the injured beast was too tired to fight off whoever was bothering him. After a few minutes, the dragon soon realized he was bound and started struggling. Ben quickly stepped back as the dragon struggled to get free from the capturing device. As Ben watched, he saw the binds starting to cut into the dragon's scales. He quickly ran over the dragon and told him to stop. The dragon instantly did as he was told, but not because he was told to. The reason why the dragon stopped was because of the voice that was wrapped in panic telling him to stop.

For the first time since he had woken up, the black dragon turned his ebony orbs to the young man who was trying to figure out a way to take the net off him. Ben turned to the dragon and smiled. "Hey there, I know you're scared, but you can't start struggling right now. This thing you're caught in is cutting into your scales and I don't want you getting infected so give me a few minutes and I'll try to remove it ok," Ben said in a begging voice. The dragon looked at Ben curiously but nonetheless nodded his head, allowing Ben to try and find the release switch. After several moments of looking the device over, Ben found its center and was able to activate the retract function.

Within a few short moments the binds were removed and Ben asked the dragon to hold still for awhile; he checked the wounds created from the steel cables. The dragon did as he was asked and laid still. Ben got to work, and bandaged the dragon. Just as Ben finished working on the black dragon, rustling could be heard from the distance. Ben began to panic and spoke to the dragon again. "Look, I know you're injured, but if you don't want to be tamed, you better get out of here now. I'll do what I can to stall them, but please hurry and get out of here!"

Even though the dragon could understand English very well, but with the young brunette talking so fast and in a panic state, he couldn't understand him all that well. However, he caught the scent of another human and figured the kid was warning him about him. Looking at the brunette one more time, he got up slowly and limped away from the area. Ben picked up all his things and ran back to his tent and put everything up. After that he grabbed his book and a fold up chair and went back outside. He sat down in the chair and opened his book. When footsteps reached Ben's ears, he took several breaths to try to calm his heartbeat.

Suddenly from behind the bushes came a tall figure. He looked around as if to search for something, but noticed the tent in front of him. Ben turned and looked at him and slightly faltered; before him was a six foot, muscular, African American male. Mentally the young Tennyson licked his lips and stared at the older teen. When the rider trainee looked towards the river, he noticed Ben and smiled at him. "Hey Ben, what are you doing out here?" the taller teen asked confused. Ben turned away from the trainee and started to pout.

Manny couldn't help but think Ben was cute, but he wanted to know what was up with the young brunette so he asked again. Ben huffed and explained to Manny what happened back at camp and even told Manny he knew he really didn't have a real reason to be upset. Manny nodded his head as he thought about it. Manny came from a family of dragon riders and when he was young, he and his mother worried about his dad all the time, so he understood what Ben meant about his fear of losing his grandpa.

"Ben, you've got a pretty good reason to be upset as far as I'm concerned. He would've scared me if you didn't get upset. With you getting upset, it showed that you care about your grandpa and you only want what's best, but you also have to remember that being a dragon rider is always going to be a part of him. You've got to understand that he feels that it's his duty to protect those he loves and the best way to do that is with all his knowledge on a dragon." Manny said soothingly.

Ben looked down at the ground and spoke soft with an "I know." Manny smiled and patted Ben on the back. Then he remembered why he came through this area in the first place. "Hey, Ben, have you seen a dragon in this area? I shot one down earlier and I know he fell over here."

Ben looked at him and lied, "Yeah I saw him, and he had a nasty cut on his leg. I treated his leg and when I went to check someplace else he released the net thing and snarled at me. I guess when he noticed I wasn't a rider, he left. I don't know what direction he went in though."

Manny looked a little upset about this info, but knew Ben was probably lucky to get away with a dragon just snarling at him. He gave Ben his thanks and ran off in the direction he found the dragon's tracks heading in.

Once Manny was gone, Ben let out a sigh of relief and finally got into his book. While Ben was reading, he never noticed the black dragon he saved was watching him from atop of a nearby hill. The young dragon was curious about the teen that had saved him, so he decided he'd follow the boy and get to know him a little better.

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Okay everyone so how was this one? Pretty long for me, I know, but I thought this was a good lil treat for everyone. So let me know what you think. Well TTFN….**


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or anything else.

**Hey everyone! Thanks for all the reviews and favorites! This one has gotten reviews with the first two chapters than most of my other stories. Now if you all have any questions or suggestions, I will be more than happy to hear them out. Okay here we go; hope you like this one just as much as the others.**

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Curious Dragons**

_Chapter 3_

It was Wednesday by the time every trainee got a dragon of his or her own. The last one to get their dragon ended up being Manny. For some reason, he scared the other dragons to the others, but just before the young trainee was going to give up, he came across Green Cross dragon.

The Green Cross is a dragon that has light green scales, and has a pair of bronze colored horns on the top of its head, and at the corner end of its jaw. It has eerie yellow pupils, and the rest of its eyes are black. This dragon doesn't differ much from most dragons, except in the dragon's size and brute strength. The Green Cross was about one and a half times the size of most dragons and its most notable trait was the loss of its wings.

~~~~Time Change Late Wednesday Evening~~~~

Ben had finally accepted that his grandfather was becoming an active rider again and returned to camp and apologized. Max told Ben his actions were justified so there was no need to apologize and asked if he wanted to go to the hot springs. Ben smiled and answered with a yes. The pair went off to the hot springs and enjoyed themselves and missed Manny returning unconscious on a Green Cross. When they returned, they noticed the 8 ft dragon lying next to Manny's tent and questioned Devlin. Devlin told them that the Green Cross was now Manny's partner and it was odd since Green Cross's don't normally take on partners.

Early Thursday morning, Max woke up all the students and their dragons to officially bind the pair together as rider and dragon then start flying lessons.

Ben snuck away from everyone to enjoy a bit of a nice dip in the shallow end of the river. Taking all the necessary things with him, Ben ran from the campsite and found a nice clear opening to set his things down. After taking a moment to test the water, Ben jumped in and began swimming as hard as he could. The young brunette always found that swimming was the best way for him to stay in shape and have fun.

As Ben played in the water, the black dragon that Ben helped out over the weekend, found him again and crept as quietly as he could and watched the brunette up close. When the dragon first met the boy, he knew the boy wasn't a rider, but it didn't make sense why he was surrounded by riders. Keeping a close eye on him, the young black dragon found out that the brunette was the grandson a famous dragon rider and the boy was mad that his grandfather was going to become an active rider again. He watched as the boy splashed around and thought maybe he should join him since they were alone. The dragon prince smiled as he flew up into the air and let himself drop into the middle of the river.

While Ben swam oblivious from the dragon lurking nearby, he soon felt himself being thrown by a strong wave that seemed to come out of nowhere. The brunette began to cough and spit out water, as he got back to his feet and looked around for what might have caused that wave. A moment later, he noticed the dragon with black scales laughing at him in its own way. Ben glared at the dragon and shouted, "Stupid dragon! You could've killed me. I know you're the dragon I helped out the other day, and this is the thanks I get for making sure you don't get caught?" Ben huffed and turned his back to the dragon, with his arms folded across his chest.

The dragon prince then felt slightly guilty about jumping into the river. So he walked over to Ben and nudged him and cooed softly behind him. Ben glanced over his shoulder and noticed the dragon cooing at him, but he made no effort to acknowledge him. However after a few looks at the black dragon, Ben turned around and smiled softly at him. Ben reached out to him and soothingly began to rake his hands behind the dragon's head, and heard a purr-like sound coming from the black dragon. Now that Ben was back to being to his normal self, he walked towards the shore and set up his lounge chair to start reading.

Once he was on dry land, he noticed the black dragon was right behind him and lay down next to the chair. Ben shook his head at the odd behavior of the dragon and went to sit down. As he began to read, he unconsciously reached out for the dragon prince and petted his mane of red hair. The dragon prince enjoyed the boy's attention, but soon lifted his head as he picked up on the scent of another human. He got up and growled at the direction the scent was coming from, and Ben looked at the dragon curiously. After a moment, Ben heard his grandpa's voice and started to panic. Even though he didn't do anything wrong, he knew that if his grandfather saw the black dragon, Max would either make Ben become a rider or try to fight off the mysterious dragon. Ben turned to his new friend and said, "Look you gotta get out of here. My grandpa is coming and I don't want him to find you."

The dragon prince turned to give him a face that asked, 'Are you mad?' Ben groaned and replied, "No I'm not crazy, just go, if you do what I say I'll bring you some fish tonight. Just meet me here at sun down and I'll have it okay?" The dragon's tail began to wag at the mention of fish, which Ben mentally thought that maybe this dragon was more related to a dog than a fire-breathing beast.

With no further ado, the black dragon raced away from Ben and hid to watch what was going to happen with his human.

Ben began to read his book again as his grandfather came from over one of the hills near him. Max looked and saw his grandson sitting by the bank, reading, and wondered if he had been doing this all day. As Max finally reached his grandson, he pulled Ben's book away from him and smiled at the pouting expression Ben made at him. "So this is where you've running off for the last few days," Max said looking around and admiring Ben's choice of location.

Ben stopped pouting and sighed. "Yeah, this is where I come to get away from all the dragon training; and besides I didn't want to get in the way." Max nodded his head and looked at his grandson.

"Well you may want to get back to the campsite and start packing everything you aren't going to need. Since everyone has a dragon this year, we're going to be leaving early and head back home and give everyone the rest of the week off. I know they'll appreciate it, and with that time, they can use it to get to know their dragon."

Ben smirked at his grandfather and decided to be his normal self. "So that means you too, huh grandpa?"

Max went to say something about Ben's attitude, but then remembered he was in the same boat as his students, so with a sigh he let Ben off the hook. However, he did deliver a playful smack to the back of Ben's head. Ben laughed as he gathered his things and started back to the camp with Max. Before he was out of view though, he turned around and looked for a certain pair of obsidian eyes. When he found them, he mouthed out he'd be back at sun down.

The dragon prince watched Ben go and laid down to rest and would wait for his human to return.

As Ben made it back to camp, he saw Pierce walking by his tent. Ben wondered about that since Pierce's tent was on the other side of the camp. He called out the older teen's name and started to jog over to him. When Pierce heard his name being called, he turned to see Ben running towards him. As Ben came into arms reach, Pierce reached out and put his hands on Ben shoulders and pulled him close. "Hey, Ben, I haven't seen you all day," Pierce said in a friendly tone.

Ben laughed nervously as he answered Pierce, "Well I went into the forest and sat by the river and read most of the day. I didn't want to be a bother while you all were practicing how to ride you dragons."

"Yeah I guess that's very true; you would have distracted me from learning something I really needed to know," Pierce said deepening his voice just a bit. Ben gulped uncomfortably and pulled away from Pierce.

"Hey, uh, is Manny up yet? I wanted to check up on him, so I'll see you later, bye," Ben said quickly as he took off to find the tall sexy dark-skinned teen.

A few moments later, Ben found himself outside of Manny's tent, where the Green Cross still lay next to his rider's tent. Ben gulped as he stared at the massive dragon, but he quickly turned away and tapped on Manny's tent. Manny soon appeared at the entryway and smiled as he looked at Ben. He invited the younger boy in and left the entryway open. "Hey Ben, how you been?" Manny asked cheerfully.

In return, Ben shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Fine honestly. I just got back from lying around the place you found me the other day. And I'm sorry I didn't come by and check up on you when you returned to the camp the other day. I heard you got into a nasty fight with your dragon, when you two first met."

Manny scoffed and began to tell Ben how he challenged his dragon and ran most of the time trying not to get BBQ-ed. It took some foresight and a lot of luck to get Xanatos, the Green Cross dragon's name, to step into a hole and trip himself up. When he went to check on him, the dragon hopped back to his feet and told the young rider he was tired of playing games. The dragon swung a claw at him, but Manny dodged the claw and ran at the large dragon. Xanatos took another swing at the boy but missed, giving Manny the chance he needed. He jumped onto the dragon's leg and used it as a spring board and punched the dragon in the jaw.

Ben stared blankly at Manny for a minute or so, not really believing the guy was able to punch such a large dragon. Manny continued to tell Ben that the punch caught the Green Cross off-guard but didn't do any real damage to him. However it was enough to prove to Xanatos that Manny had the guts to fight any opponent and take on whatever was thrown at him, traits that the Green Cross dragon favored. Once Manny finished, Ben smiled and told him that he was very brave for doing that. Manny blushed from the compliment, and heard Xanatos' laughter from outside. With a quick shut up from Manny, Xanatos laughed even louder and rolled onto his side. Many growled under his breath, and Ben found it kinda cute on the tall and sexy rider.

The pair soon began to chat about all the things they liked to do, and found out they had a lot in common. Xanatos would join in every now and again and asked his rider to show him many things once they reach Bellwood.

The hours seem to fly by, and soon Ben noticed the sun was setting below the horizon. He jumped up from his spot and told Manny he had to get packed up for tomorrow morning. Manny nodded and wished Ben good night. Ben thanked Manny and ran off as fast as he could. The first stop Ben made was by the kitchen area to snag a meal for him, then went to the feeding area for the dragons. Ben quickly and silently loaded a basket of fish and took off for the spot he hoped his new friend would be waiting for him.

The dragon prince was lying on the ground when he started thinking that maybe his human forgot about him. For some unknown reason, the dragon became furious at the thought and had every intention of going into the camp and finding the lithe brunette. However, a few seconds later, the scent of fish and the faint smell of Ben filled his nostrils. He purred as Ben came into view, and soon the dragon was bounding over towards Ben. Ben, who was not ready for the running dragon, was soon tackled to the ground by the large black dragon. As he groaned and lifted up his head, he found the black dragon was now face-to-face with him. Ben jumped back in surprise, and the only thing the dragon could do was turn his head to the side very cutely.

Ben shook his head and started to get up but stopped when he felt the dragon's head pressed up against his neck. Ben laughed a bit as the dragon nuzzled some more. Thinking this may be a good moment as any, Ben wrapped his arms around the dragon's neck and pulled him close.

While Ben was away from his grandpa, Ben came to terms with his dislike of dragons, and decided to at least show he still cared about them, as he did when he was little. The two stayed like this for a few moments, until the growl of the black dragon broke them apart. Ben laughed at the surprised expressions on the dragon's face and got up to find that the basket of fish was now lying not too far away.

It didn't take much for Ben to get the black dragon to get off him and go eat the fish he brought. As Ben got to his feet, he looked for the meal he brought for himself and couldn't find it. The young Tennyson groaned in annoyance, and the black dragon seemed to notice Ben's dismay. When the dragon noticed the boy didn't have any food, he stopped eating and started breaking branches off a few trees. He placed them in front of Ben and gave the boy an odd look.

Ben turned his head to the side and tried to figure out what the dragon wanted with the branches, but when the dragon opened his mouth and showed him the sparks and growing flames, he guess the dragon wanted him to get them ready to be burned. Working quickly, Ben set the branches up and watched as the black dragon released a small dark purple flame from his mouth. The fire soon settled into a decent flame, and went over to the few fish that still remained and took one. He smiled at the young dragon and placed it over the fire.

While he waited for the fish to cook, Ben turned to the dragon and asked, "So, uh, do you speak?" The young dragon looked perplexed at the question. Yes, he could speak to the human, however if he did, that would ruin his future plans so he shook his head no and made a whining noise. Ben felt slightly down about this fact, but perked up when the young dragon came closer and laid next to him. The young Tennyson smiled at the dragon and began to pet him.

"You know this is kinda funny," Ben said as he continued to pet his new friend. When the young dragon gave been a confused look, Ben began to explain why this was so funny to him.

"For the past 10 years, I've blamed dragons for almost everything bad that has happened to me. It first started out with the loss of my parents. At the near end of the Dragon Rider War, my parents decided to become dragon breeders. They thought that if they could provide more dragons for the dragon riders, then the war would come to an end much faster. However, Vilgax saw them as a potential threat, so he and a group of his warriors, attacked my parents farmhouse."

"When Vilgax attacked, my parents were tending to some of the young dragons they were trying to breed. They never had a chance to call for help, or tried to escape. Me on the other hand, I was safe in the house near the edge of the farm. However, I could see the flames from the barn house and rushed as fast as I could to see if my parents were okay. Vilgax spotted me as I approached the barn and snatched me up. He laughed in my face and tossed me to the ground saying, _'Your parents are gone and since you are no threat to me, I will let you live knowing there was nothing you could do.'"_

"A day or so passed when my grandpa came to get me and took me to stay with him and my cousin Gwen. For about two years, Gwen and I spent a lot of time with my Grandma Verdona. After the war ended, Grandpa came home and we lived happily together, but soon Grandma and Gwen left for the Magix Academy. Grandma was placed as the school's headmaster, and with Gwen having the _'spark'_ as Grandma called it, she took her along with her. I lost the closest people to me because of the Dragon Rider War, and then I lost my new family because the king wanted to make sure that the country would be safe from another war. So after that, I was pretty much alone after that when grandpa started up Dragon Riders School. When he asked if I wanted to join I told him to fuck off, and that it was because of dragons that I was left alone in the world. And up until this week I really did believe that."

The young dragon prince began to meow softly for his friend's pain, and tried his best to cheer him up by nuzzling his cheek again. Ben smiled and laughed at the dragon's loving gesture and scratched him under his chin. The dragon purred again and leaned into Ben's touch. The two stayed this way for a few more minutes until Ben smelled the scent of smoked fish. He then turned to his food and saw it was ready for consumption.

Once he finished eating, he played with the young dragon and lost track of time until he noticed how dark it was. He quickly looked at his watch and saw it was going on 9pm. He gasped and went over the fire and threw dirt on it. Before he ran back to camp however, he went over to his new friend and gave him a hug and whispered, "I wish there was a way I could take you home with me, but if I did, my grandpa would make me become a rider and I don't wanna to see you forced into something like that." Ben let the dragon go and gave him a teary smile and ran off.

The dragon prince was stunned that a human like this one had not only a hard life, but was also so kind. The boy's words echoed on his heart, and being the type of person he was, Kevin, the name that dragon prince was given at birth, decided he would stand beside this human, even if it meant him becoming a tamed dragon.

~~~Time Change, Next Day~~~

Ben stared out the window, as they rode the bus going back to Bellwood. His thoughts were on a special dragon that seemed to catch his attention. While Ben was staring off into space, a few trainees were staring at their Dragianium summoner. The devise was created from a piece of precious metal and the tears of both the rider and the dragon. These devises took on the shape that would best fit the rider. For example, Manny's Dragianium summoner took the form of a ring with the ancient symbol of the Green Cross as its center made of dark green jade. Pierce's summoner was a belt with the Plumber's insignia as the buckle. Max's summoner took the form of his former one, a large watch with the Plumber's insignia as the face of the watch.

Now, for those who are wondering, the dragons were teleported to the dragon stables just outside Bellwood. These stable were basically an enormous patch of land with several different terrains in it for the different types of dragons.

All the while, everyone was too focused on the success of the quest that they never noticed that high above them was a young dragon following them back to the city.

As late afternoon approached, Ben walked out of the grocers with a bag with enough food to feed a small army. Though Ben carried most of it in the extra-dimensional backpack his grandmother gave him for his birthday, he carried a few bags in his arms. As he started home, an unwanted guest appeared next to him. '_Uhhh, I thought this guy would finally take the hint I don't want him around,"_ Ben groaned mentally as Cash started with his lame pick lines.

"So Benny, I heard everyone was able to get a dragon on the quest this year," Cash started out.

Ben sighed as usual and replied, "Yeah everyone did, well except Paradox and me anyway."

Cash smirked to himself and took one of Ben's bags. "Wow that's great, so that means the rumor about your grandpa going active again may be coming true huh? I guess that will leave you _all alone _huh?"

Ben stopped in his tracks at Cash's statement and it dawned on the young man that Cash was right; if his grandfather did become an active rider again, Ben would be all alone. The young Tennyson's posture and entire demeanor seemed to dim low as this realization caught up with him. This was the situation Cash had been hoping for a long time, so he decided to make his final move. "Well Ben if you'd like I'll be more than happy to keep you company on those _lonely_ nights."

Even though Ben was down from his thoughts of being alone, Cash's remark struck a chord with the brunette. "Listen Cash, even if my grandpa does become an active rider, and I do get lonely, it'll take a hell'va lot more than that to get me to call you, so do us both a fucking favor and leave me the hell alone!" Ben nearly screamed and took off down the road.

Cash for the most part was dumbfounded, but as soon as it wore off, he became enraged that Ben had the gall to speak to him in such a manner. Growling and grinding his teeth, Cash went after Ben, and with his long strides, he quickly caught the younger teen. He grabbed Ben's arms and pulled him out of sight and threw Ben against a wall.

The smaller teen groaned in pain as his back hit the wall, but he looked up and caught sight of the fury in Cash's eyes. "You fucking little shit! Who the hell do'ya think you are refusing me? I'm one of the guys who protect the weak, pathetic, excuses of trash like you, and you dare refuse me?" Ben began to whine as Cash gripped his arm and squeezed as hard as he could. Cash began to grin with a sadistic look on his face as he saw Ben squirm in his grasp.

As his hold got tighter on Ben's arm, a sudden pain racked over his body. With the same speed that he grabbed Ben's arm with, he let the younger teen go. Ben quickly took his arm back and looked around and saw a tall shadow-covered figure behind Cash. Ben quickly ran and hid behind the tall and muscular form as Cash got back to his feet. He turned to face his attacker, and realized that he was looking at a guy who was almost twice his size and muscle mass. He gulped and glared at the intruder.

"Look pal I don't know who you think you are, but that kid got what's coming to him so get outta my way and no one gets hurt," Cash yelled venomously. Ben shivered behind the body that protected him, but what he didn't notice was the face of the taller man looking down at him with a slight smile. When the mysterious stranger turned and faced Cash and stated in a firm voice "No." The blood vessel on Cash's temple looked as if it could burst as he pulled out his Dragianium summoner and called his dragon. The coin formed summoner began to glow and released a wave of ancient Dragianium symbols that flew and formed a circle around Cash. When the symbols burned in a blood red color, the circle soon looked as if someone had dropped a coin in a lake. However instead of something vanishing below the ripples, a light blue dragon rose from the circle. The dragon had its fangs barred at the stranger and felt his rider's presence next to him.

Cash pointed to the stranger and told his dragon to attack, but his partner made no move to attack. When he looked at his dragon named JT, he noticed the dragon seemed hypnotized. When he turned and faced the stranger, he saw why his dragon was frozen. The shadowy figure's eyes were no longer obsidian. They changed to a dark crimson red with slit-like pupils glaring at them.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? You call yourself a dragon rider? Ha! You're nothing but a weakling that got lucky and passed the exams. Dragon riders are selfless souls that protect the ones they love, not extort them for protection, and as far as I'm concerned you are no longer a rider and your dragon is no longer bound to you as you broke the riders' oath," the stranger spoke in a dark tone.

JT soon felt the binds that tied him and Cash together break and the young dragon looked at his former master. Cash however didn't feel the binds break as he scoffed at the stranger and told his dragon to attack. The dragon blew a breath of steam at Cash and started to flap his wings. In a moment, the dragon flew off and went to return to his home in the mountains as a free dragon. Cash stared at the retreating form of his former dragon and turned with a terrified look at that stranger.

The stranger smirked at him and said, "Now that your partner's gone, you don't have any strength to fight me. So just take this as my first and only warning, don't pick on those smaller than you."

With that, the mysterious figure turned and took hold of Ben's shoulder and told him he was safe. Ben slowly calmed down and was lead out of the alley and back onto the main street. Once he was back to normal, Ben thanked the seemingly older teen and asked his name. With a seductive smirk gracing his face, he said, "The name's Kevin – Kevin Levin."

TBC….

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Okay so here's chapter 3! How do you like it? Was it good? Was its bad? Please tell me, I wanna know! Your review help fuel the furnace of my mind and help produce such stories so keep feeding it and you all will get more…Well TTFN!**


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or anything else just the plot.

**Hey everyone how's it going? I gotta say I'm very thankful for so many people's support on this story. It's truly this inspiration that gives my muses the strength and makes my lazy ass write. Also everyone please thank my wonderful Beta ****Otaku Maiden. If it hadn't been for her, my stories would be riddled with errors so please give her cookies and money for Christmas.**

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Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 4_

Ben's face began to turn a bright shade of red as Kevin spoke to him. However he quickly let his head fall to hide the blush.

"T-thank you for saving me. I'm not sure where I'd be if you hadn't come," Ben said trying to will his blush away. Kevin continued to smirk and place his hand under Ben's chin and lifted it so he would be looking into his eyes. "Trus' me I had no problem coming to the rescue for you. So will I get the chance to know the name of the angel I was able to save?" Kevin asked, deepening his voice just to make the brunette shiver.

As Kevin hoped, a small shiver ran down Ben's spine and his blush began to take over his face. Ben pulled away from the hands that held his face and replied, "Uh...Ben, Ben Tennyson. So, um, Kevin I g-gotta get home, but um, would you like to come over for dinner? Y-you know as a way to thank you?"

A smile crept up onto Kevin's face and he quickly answered Ben. "I'd love to! It's been forever since I had _human_ food…uh I mean, well, _civilized_ human food. I live out in the woods with my uncle so we eat whatever we can catch." Ben looked at Kevin, curious at the mention of him not having human food in a while, but he let his suspicions go for the time being. Kevin then took Ben's grocery bag and said he was ready, however Ben groaned as he thought about having another mouth to feed.

Ben turned back around and asked Kevin to help carry some more bags home. Kevin smiled and nodded since he was getting a free meal. The two walked into the store and got a few more items for dinner. As they left the store, Ben never noticed a few of the surprised looks on the faces of some of the older customers. Ben was seen as a loner since the death of his parents and when he turned down the offer to join the Dragon Riders Academy, he was somewhat shunned by the kids his age for his stupidity. So now that he was seen with a tall and handsome young man that would talk so easily around Ben caught everyone off guard.

When Ben and Kevin finally made it back to the Tennyson residence, Ben opened the door and didn't bother announcing his presence. Max was at the academy with the other students getting a bit of training in. Ben told Kevin to follow him into the kitchen, but stopped when he entered in the living room. The moment Ben stopped, Kevin almost ran into the brunette, as he observed everything in the house.

"Hey Ben, a lil' warnin' would be nice next time you," was all Kevin said as he noticed Ben wasn't paying him any attention; that fact alone grinded Kevin's gears. Black dragons in the past were very possessive of things they considered their property, and with Kevin already claiming Ben as his human, Ben's attention should always be on him. Kevin lifted his head to see what had taken his human's attention away from him.

A second later, he stared at the same intoxicating acid green eyes he noticed Ben having. However these eyes weren't as sharp-colored as Ben's, they were slightly duller, and they were on a female human. This human was almost as petite as Ben, but she had rich orange-reddish hair, which he had to say was quite nice. She sat on the couch reading with a pair of headphones on, ignoring the world around her. Ben smiled and called out to the mysterious girl. When she heard her name, she immediately looked up and smiled excitedly. She jumped off the couch and ran towards Ben. Ben copied her movements and the two hugged each other, laughing and giggling.

Kevin tilted his head to the side in confusion, and watched the two jumping around. The raven-haired teen didn't like this but when he cleared his throat, he was again ignored by the two cousins. Kevin began to pout but stood where he was.

A moment later, Ben pulled away from his cousin. "Gwen, what are'ya going here? Semester break doesn't start till next month!"

The redhead smiled and started to explain to Ben what happened. "Well, the headmistress decided everyone needed a break, including herself, after one of the students tried to create a golem and the bloody thing went rogue. With the being resistant to magic, the headmistress borrowed small amounts of everyone's magic to create a powerful spell that the golem couldn't protect itself from. After that, she told everyone to go home and she'd make sure to let everyone know when school would be starting up again."

Ben looked flabbergasted that the entire Magix Academy was now shut down till further notice. Then a pondering/worried expression came across his face. "Well where's grandma then," Ben asked, worry lacing his voice.

"Right here kiddo," a voice said seemingly from nowhere. In a matter of seconds, a small twister of white light began to spiral in the living room. As the storm grew in power, items all over the room began to shake and fall over. When the spiral of magic ended, there stood a lithe elderly-like woman with grey hair and a mischievous smile plastered on her face. Ben called the older woman grandma and nearly tackled her into a hug. The old woman laughed happily as she returned the brunette's affection.

The Tennyson family was mostly back together again and it made all of them extremely happy for it. At that moment, Verdona let go of Ben and stepped back. She started looking over Ben to see how much her "kiddo" had grown. Verdona circled the brunette once or twice and sensed that something was different about her grandson, but she couldn't place what was so different. "Hmm, Ben you'd grown quite nicely. You're handsome, smart, caring and if I must say you have great hair, but there's something different about you. I can't pin it down but at least I still know you're a virgin," Verdona said as he continued to inspect him.

Ben blushed deeply, as he shouted at his grandma. Gwen couldn't help but snicker at this. Verdona looked Ben in the eyes and replied to his whining. "Ben, there's no shame in being a virgin. When you lose that, it should be with someone you love. It also means that big boy behind me still has a chance at popping your cherry." After Verdona spoke, Ben turned three shades of red darker, and Gwen broke out into complete hysterics.

Kevin for the most part blushed at Verdona's choice of words, and soon he felt a strong gaze set on him. When he looked up, obsidian orbs met crystal blue eyes. He stood his ground as he glared at the older woman, who smiled at him afterwards. "I'm glad you made such a good friend, Ben; just remember he has to go home _every night_," Verdona joked. Ben groaned and palmed his forehead and gave Kevin a sheepish grin. Kevin's glare faded at the sight of Ben's grin so he shrugged his shoulders and came further into the room.

Unbeknownst to Ben, Gwen, and Kevin, Verdona was staring at him because she felt a strong power inside the raven-haired male, but couldn't figure out what it was. While she looked him over, she noticed an extremely powerful transformation spell was placed on him. In all Verdona's years in dealing with magic, she'd never seen such a powerful transformation, and it startled her. However when she looked into the boy's heart, she saw many things floating about, but at the center was an image of Ben smiling at him. So the old sorceress let her fears go for the time being and decided to enjoy the time she had with her family.

"So Ben, what's with all the shopping bags?" Gwen asked curiously. Ben looked over at his cousin and smiled, knowing she'd get a real kick out of this. "Well I bought the ingredients for my special lasagna, and marble pound cake." The two sorceresses jumped for joy at the news and smiled saying how much they loved the young brunette. Ben smiled at their reaction and told Kevin to follow him into the kitchen. Kevin swiftly followed Ben as he helped him separate the food from what he would need for that night and what they would use later.

While Ben and Kevin worked on dinner, Verdona yelled that she'd be heading over to the Plumbers Academy and tending to her wifely duties, to which Ben and Gwen screamed about how they were now scarred for life. Kevin laughed as Verdona vanished from sight, and a moment later, Gwen walked into the kitchen and told Kevin she'd help Ben if he wanted to just watch TV or something. Kevin turned the offer down, not really knowing what a TV was, and said he'd rather be helping Ben anyway.

Gwen smiled softly at the older male attitude, but wondered how the pair met. "So Ben, when did you meet Kevin?"

Ben, who was concentrating on cooking, answered, "About an hour ago." When he realized what he said, it was too late to take it back.

Gwen's eye widened in shock and she looked at Kevin and gave him a confused look. "Okay so why invite him home then, if you just met him? Is there something you're not telling me?" Gwen said curiously as she turned her gaze to the nervous looking brunette.

Ben was becoming nervous but luckily Kevin was able to save him. "Actually that's between me and Ben so if you wanna know, we both have to agree first and I don't, so stop askin'," the ruffian said off-handedly. Gwen glared at the raven-haired teen, but honestly couldn't retort to his comment. With a huff and the folding of her arms, she went into the living room to finish the book she was reading. Ben let out a sigh of relief as Gwen walked away. He smiled and turned to face Kevin and mouthed out a quick thank you. Kevin returned the smile and went back to helping Ben cook.

As time passed, the young brunette glanced at Kevin and began to wonder about the raven-haired teen. He knew that Kevin was very dangerous, but something told him that Kevin would never do anything to hurt him. Mustering his courage, Ben asked a question that was bugging him all day. "So, uh Kevin, where are you from?" Said teen was thrown off by the question and he knew if he answered honestly Ben would never want to see him again. Thinking quickly he came up with a good response.

"Well, I really don't have a home. I've been roaming Paragon for the past four years. My mom died while giving birth to me, and after that my dad was killed during the Dragon Rider War. I was put in an orphanage but I ran away from there, 'cause they treated us like shit," Kevin explained gritting out his words at the end for a more believable performance. When Kevin looked at Ben, he saw the younger boy looked like he was ready to cry so he quickly added, "But that's no reason to cry over it. It made me who I am today so I got no problems with it."

Ben nodded his head and did his best to wipe away his tears. '_I can't believe he's still such a nice guy and so much has happened to him. Wait if he's a wanderer, that means he doesn't have a place to stay. Maybe I can get grandpa to let him to stay here. At least that way I'll have some company around the house,_' the brunette thought innocently. He nodded to himself and quickly smiled at Kevin. Said raven felt his heart rate speed up at the beautiful look on Ben's face and turned away from Ben just in case his face turned another color.

It was two hours later when everyone sat down at the table. Verdona sat to Max's left, who sat the head of the table, while Ben sat next to the right him. Gwen sat next to Verdona and across from her sat Kevin, who looked slightly uncomfortable. When Max noticed the young man at the table he greeted him warmly. Kevin was thankful for the warm greeting and asked him how his day went. Max's cheeks showed a touch of blush as he thought about his answer.

"I'll answer for you, hun. He went to visit King Validus and told him about another war that was on the horizon. The king didn't like the news, but knows that Max would never lie to him about matters like this. So his royal _highness_, is sending out a new decree next week that will draft any person with the talent of magic or dragon riding to join the Royal Academy. The nerve of him forcing people to join a school they don't want to be a part of. I told him as much and also told him that the kingdom will run him over if he plans on following through with his plan. So he says he's going to change it and have all those with talent report to the academies and go through basic training on the skills they will need in case of an attack," Verdona explained sounding very annoyed and pissed off. Ben was the first to get very pissed off at the news.

Ben was one of those that the decree talked about and he wanted none of it, but with Paragon on the verge of another war, he sat back down in his seat and grumbled about selfish royals, and something about a roasted pig. Kevin, who tried to hold back his laughter at Ben's pouting expression, thought that maybe he could use this to his advantage. Kevin knew where a few young dragons hung out it in the area and if he could talk to them, he may be able to get on the Dragon riders' good side and get Ben as a partner.

As everyone started eating dinner, Gwen asked their grandfather why he was blushing before. Max immediately stopped eating and blushed again as Verdona smirked. "It's simple dear, after I told Validus off about people's rights, I grabbed Max and dragged him out of the throne room to have my way with him," Verdona said cheerfully. This was met with three distinct reactions. Ben looked shocked and dropped his fork as his grandmother finished. Gwen shook her head in disapproving manner, and lastly Kevin was snickering behind his hand at Max's reddening face.

Ben shook his head after a few moments and jumped to another topic. "Uh grandpa is it possible that Kevin stays with us? He doesn't have anywhere to go and with Gwen going to have to help grandma with new recruits I'll be more alone than before. It'll be good for everyone. Kevin won't have to wander around anymore, I'll have someone my own age to hang out with, and you won't have to worry about me being alone," Ben said in a slight rush. Max stopped eating and asked Ben to repeat himself. As Ben repeated himself, he told his grandfather about Kevin's past and asked again if Kevin could stay with them. Gwen disagreed with this, but it was up to Verdona and Max to allow the boy to stay. When Max asked Verdona, the old sorceress smiled and said, "Welcome to the family kiddo!" She swiftly vanished and appeared behind his chair and hugged him from behind.

However, unknown to the other Tennysons', Verdona whispered a few words that drained all the color from Kevin's face. "I'll let you stay as long you're good to my family, but the moment you place a single toe out of line, your destiny will end at that moment. I don't care what title you wield in dragon realm, but if you fuck up here, I'll castrate you with a slightly rusted spoon." While her words were filled with promises of pain and torture, her voice was as soft and sweet like any good grandmother.

Ben looked over at Kevin and asked if he was okay. Kevin shook himself out of his petrified stated and gave Ben a nervous smile. "Y-yeah, just a lil' creeped out by you grandma now…s-so um let's get the dishes done and head to the baths," Kevin said quickly as he stood up and picked up the plates and other utensils. Ben shrugged his shoulders and followed the older teen to the kitchen.

Once they finished, Ben was rewarded the best view in his young life. The two teens reached the Tennyson bathing house, Kevin was shocked to see the place was set up like a jungle with a large heated pool in the center, and a washing area close to the entrance. When Kevin took his clothes off, Ben nearly passed out from a major nose bleed. He gawked at Kevin's beautifully large and toned muscles. What shocked Ben the most was the raven-haired teen's package. Though the raven was still limp, Ben guessed when he was hard, Kevin was an easily ten and a half inches long and thick as a cucumber. That thought alone made Ben want to try his luck with Kevin, but held back not knowing if Kevin was even into guys. So with a great deal of self-restraint, Ben took a cold shower and hid in the large pool.

TBC…

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Hey everyone hope you enjoyed that late Christmas gift. Now if you liked this chapter let me know so I can get rted on the next! TTFN…**


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or anything else just the plot.

**Okay everyone I have to say thank you! You all have given a great deal of support and it's really getting my gears turning to make this story a lot of fun. To everyone who has reviewed, added to favorite, or alerted this story thank you. Well now that I've got that out of the way, I just wanna ask who else saw the Ultimate Alien Finale and was shocked to see that hunky blonde towards the end? When I figured out it was Cooper I so wanted to jumped him and claim him as mine. **

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Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 5_

After playing in the water for an hour, Ben and Kevin got out of the hot spring-like tub and dried themselves off. It was after this that Ben thought about Kevin not having anymore clothes to wear. He blushed as he thought of Kevin walking around nude, so he told the raven to stay in the bathing room and wait for him. Kevin nodded his head and went back towards the tub and placed his feet in the water again. Once Ben disappeared, Kevin let out a sigh of relief and enjoyed the warmth of the water. The young dragon let the warmth flow into his body and let it spread throughout his entire form. Dragons normally are able to regulate a nice warm temperature for themselves, however, while Kevin was in his human form, his normal dragon temperature was much too high for him to keep, so he absorbed the heat from the water to warm himself a bit and feel a bit more normal.

Ben ran through the house and knocked on his grandparent's room door. Ben had learned it was best to knock if he didn't want to see his grandparents reliving their younger years, which the young brunette still had nightmares about every now and again. Once he heard his grandfather's voice telling him to enter, Ben opened the door and asked if he could borrow a pair of pajamas and a decent outfit for Kevin to wear. The young Tennyson explained to his grandfather that the next day he would be taking Kevin shopping for some clothes and it was only this one time. Max nodded his head and told the younger boy to grab what he needed. Ben smile and ran to the expansive walk-in closet his grandparents shared.

It took Ben a few minutes to figure what would fit Kevin, but once he was done, he ran out of the room wishing his grandparents a good night. As he made his way back to the bathing room, a hand reached out and took hold of his bicep. With a quick yank, Ben was pulled into his cousin's room, where he faced the livid stare of Gwen. Ben gulped nervously as he gave her a slight smile.

"U-uh, h-h-hey Gwen what's wrong?" Ben asked knowing there was no way of getting out of this.

Gwen's glare got sharper as she folded her arms over her chest. "Ben, what the hell is wrong with you? First off, you bring some strange man into our house, and then you proceed to ask grandpa to let that guy stay with us! Ben that guy could be some psycho murderer and you just gave him 4 new targets!"

While Ben knew Gwen did have a point, he wasn't going to let her talk about his newest crush and savior in that manner. "Gwen, back off! Yeh I know that could be true, but you have to remember that he'd have to get to us first. You're trained in the arts a combat magic; grandma's a fully-fledged _Anodite,_ you know, the most powerful magic users on the _planet_; and grandpa's got his dragon rider abilities. There's no way he could hurt us, and before you even start, I'm well enough versed in 2 different martial arts so you don't have to worry about me. Furthermore, he's a great guy if you took the moment to get off your high horse and actually give the guy a chance! Gwen, he saved me from being _raped_ by _Cash_ earlier. The dinner was my way of thanking him, but him staying here is my way of showing him that there are good people left in the world and are willing to help. So get over it! He's staying and I don't give a rat's ass if you don't like it." Ben said fiercely to his cousin. Gwen, for the most part, was quiet and took in Ben's words; however her expression turned dark as her hand lit up with mana.

"Ben did you just say Cash tried to rape you?" Gwen inquired in a very pissed off tone. Ben then turned back to his nervous self and answered, well stuttered, a yes. When Gwen began to levitate and say she's be back, Ben stopped her and told her it was taken care of. It was then that Ben told her everything that had happened to him since last week. Once Gwen got the whole story, she was shocked that Ben had met an actual black dragon, and that Cash had lost his title as a Dragon Rider. Normally only a member of the dragon rider council or the dragon council itself could remove and break that bond between a dragon and its rider. However, what Ben mentioned about the oath reminded her that if the oath was broken, the dragon rider would automatically lose their title.

As she calmed down, Gwen gave Ben a firm pout and told her she'd try and give Kevin a chance, but if he messed with stuff, she'd make sure he'd regret it. Ben took what he could get and ran back to see Kevin.

When he entered the bathing room, he was greeted with very cute scene. During the time Ben was gone, Kevin became tired and decided to lie down till Ben returned. So here was the tall and gorgeous raven lying on his side, completely naked, resting peacefully. Ben smiled at the sight and walked over to Kevin. Once he reached the sleeping raven, he shook him softly and spoke softly to him. "Kevin, Kevin wake up. Come on let's get up so you can get dressed and get into a nice soft bed."

In some part of Kevin's mind, Ben's word reached him, but Ben didn't get the response he expected. Kevin's face turned into a frown and reached out and took hold of his arm. With surprising strength, Ben was pulled down to the ground with Kevin and was then tucked up under him like a teddy bear. Kevin began to smile again as he felt a new source of heat and drifted a little deeper into his slumber. Ben, however, struggled a bit to try and get free from Kevin's hold. It wasn't that he found it uncomfortable, it was honestly the contrary, Ben felt safe and warm in Kevin's arms, but this was not what the young brunette expected. He struggled more and more and began to call out to the sleeping raven.

Kevin, who was slowly coming around, frowned again and said roughly, "Be a good teddy bear and lemme' sleep." Ben continued to struggled, but now got noticeably louder than before. All his yelling did nothing to loosen Kevin's grip, but it did get Gwen's attention as she ran to Ben's rescue. When she opened the door, the sight before her was almost unbearable to hold back a laugh to. Ben was still almost naked, save for the towel around his waist, pulled squarely against the larger and stronger teen's chest like a teddy bear. Gwen held her laughter for a few moments before she burst into tears at her cousin's predicament.

Ben pouted and blushed, a deep shade of red as he heard Gwen's laughter and told her to help him out. Smiling at Ben's reddened face, Gwen decided to end his embarrassment. Gathering her mana, she created a small bucket and scooped up some of the water from the pool-like tub. She quickly pulled it back and dumped it on Kevin and Ben's head. Just as she planned, Kevin shot up from the floor and shook his face, trying to catch his breath. Once he started breathing normally, Kevin looked at Gwen and glared at her, while she laughed. Gwen soon made the comment about him looking like a wet dog, and left Kevin and Ben alone. It took Kevin a moment to realize he was still holding onto Ben, but when he did, he quickly let go.

Ben let out a sigh of relief now that he was free from Kevin's hold. Though the blush he sported a few moments ago was still staining his face. "Okay Kevin, here're some sleeping clothes that should fit you, tomorrow you and I can go to the mall and get some regular clothes for you to wear," Ben said smiling. Kevin blushed at the heartwarming smile Ben gave him. What neither of them noticed was Gwen's silent smile as she left them alone. Even though she was still against Kevin staying with them, she couldn't help but notice how happy her cousin was with the other teen around.

As the sun rose the next morning, one groggy, raven-haired, dragon teen groaned as the sunlight entered the room and hit his sleeping form. The raven didn't want to get up but with the sun in his eyes, he knew he'd never get back to sleep. Kevin lazily pulled himself out of bed and walked over to the adjoining bathroom. He washed himself up with the soap and toothbrush Ben left for him and smiled at Ben's housewife-like manner. '_Hell, that's something I wouldn't mind. Benji as my little housewife,'_ the dragon prince thought as more perverted thoughts began to roam freely. Shaking his head, Kevin quickly changed out of his sleeping clothes and went down stairs. When he reached the bottom step, his nose was assaulted with the scent of food being cooked.

It didn't take much longer before his stomach began to growl at him for nourishment. Quickly taking hold of his stomach, Kevin walked towards the kitchen and saw Ben in a pink and white checkered apron. The brunette was swaying his hips back and forth as he listened to an upbeat song and cooked breakfast. Ben already knew it was just him and Kevin for breakfast since Max had paperwork he needed to do due to the new decree. Verdona left about the same time Max did, saying that she was needed back at the school for the enrollment of the new students. Gwen left to accompany a friend to a tennis match, so that left Kevin and Ben _alone._

Kevin smirked as he walked closer to the brunette and leaned over the smaller teen's body. "Hey Benji," Kevin whispered seductively next to Ben's ear. Said brunette nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden appearance of the older teen and with the sexy voice echoed in his ear. Kevin laughed a little, but stopped when Ben turned around and face him with a pout on his face and an empty frying pan in his hand. The raven apologized and asked if he could help, but Ben told him to just sit at the table.

Kevin pouted as he was forced out of the kitchen, but still his comment about Ben being a great housewife had more proof with this.

It was another ten minutes of boredom for Kevin, before Ben came to the table with two plates in his hands and another two plates balancing on his arms. Kevin was impressed by Ben's showmanship, and quickly grabbed the two plates on Ben's arms. The raven set the plates of waffles on the table and smiled at Ben. "Benji, you're gonna make a great housewife someday," Kevin said happily as he started eating breakfast.

As the pair finished eating, Ben went up stairs to fix his hair, and told Kevin to just sit and relax while he was gone. Doing as he was told, Kevin sat on the couch and sighed happily. Ben had cooked enough food to feed a family of six, and Kevin put most of it away with no problem. His stomach even bugled a bit from the amount of food he had eaten, but it would more than likely be gone as soon as he and Ben started shopping. While he waited, Kevin decided to rest his eyes and enjoyed the relaxed feeling enveloping his body.

It was about ten minute later when Ben got back down stairs and noticed Kevin was asleep again. Ben smiled softly and walked over to Kevin's sleeping form. However the brunette stopped as he remembered how he ended up as a teddy bear. He blushed at the memory and thought of a way to wake Kevin up. An idea soon came to him, and the brunette knew that Kevin would be mad later but it was fine. Ben walked over to the TV and turned it on, but quickly muted it. He flipped to the rock section of the music channels and turned the volume to max. After that, Ben turned the mute off and let the blearing music fill the room.

Kevin jumped up from the couch as the music filled his ears. The raven even shrieked out of fear, but once the deafening music stopped, Kevin heard the sounds of a certain brunette's laughter. He quickly turned to face the brunette and frowned at him. "Yeh, I know there're better ways to wake a guy up."

In between his laughter, Ben told Kevin he didn't want to end up as his teddy bear again. Kevin growled slightly, however, a thought crossed his mind, which made the raven smirk. "Fine then, Benji just don't say anything when I decide to get my revenge." Just as Kevin mentally predicted the brunette stopped laughing and looked at Kevin slightly nervous now.

"W-what do you mean," Ben asked wondering if he should start worrying about his health.

"Simple I'm gonna get you back, but when you least expect it. Now let's get going, I don't wanna be in the store all day," Kevin said with a smug-like expression gracing his features.

Ben shivered at the expression and grabbed his jacket and told Kevin to follow him. The pair walked over to the garage where Ben parked his hover car. It was rare that Ben used his car to go anywhere, but with them going clothes shopping and the distance Ben lived from the mall, Ben decided it was best to use it.

It took them about four hours to get all the clothes they needed for Kevin. The main reason for the long time was mostly due to Kevin wandering off and looking about the mall, that and many of the store patrons stopping to stare at Kevin as he modeled for Ben a little. Kevin's style of clothing seemed to consist of tight shirts that fit his upper body tightly but was loose enough for him to move freely. All the pairs of jeans Kevin chose, for some reason, seem to cling to his ass, but were loose around his thighs.

Kevin knew while he was choosing his clothes, Ben was staring at him. He liked the knowledge that Ben was so entranced by him; nothing else seem to matter. However, as all other things, the good times must come to an end. When Kevin and Ben left the mall, they went to a nice family restaurant and ate dinner there. It took them another two hours to get home, and when they did, they were met by Ben's grandfather. The older man seemed somewhat distracted, so Ben tapped him on his shoulder. Max jumped as he was suddenly pulled away from his thoughts. He turned to see Ben and Kevin, and gave them a weak greeting.

Ben looked at his grandfather and asked, "Grandpa what's wrong?"

Max sighed and reached into his jacket and pulled out a letter addressed to Ben. The young Tennyson eyed the letter and took it from his grandfather. As he turned it over, he saw the seal of the Plumbers Academy and Ben was ready to burn the letter, but he opened it first. Just as his grandfather thought, it was the letter of acceptance to the Academy, and now Ben and several other teens would be forced to join the ranks of the Dragon Riders.

Kevin meanwhile frowned knowing that the good day he and Ben had was now out the window. He sighed and left Ben and his grandfather to talk. While the two Tennyson's talked, Kevin grabbed his clothes and took them into his room. It was then that Kevin started putting his clothes up and laid on his bed to take a break. Later that night, he was woken by the tapping of someone at his door. With a large yawn, Kevin got out of his bed and walked over to the door. Kevin opened it and found Ben standing in his doorway.

The brunette looked as if he was about to cry, and Kevin quickly asked what was wrong. Ben sniffed a bit and told Kevin that King Validus' decree had gone through and three other teens about his age were being forced to go to the Academy as well. Even though Ben knew he would be joining the Academy before many, it wasn't until he received his acceptance letter that everything began to set in. Kevin, who couldn't stand to see Ben look so depressed, genteelly pulled Ben into a firm yet tender hug. Ben soon couldn't hold back his tears and let everything out. Ben retold Kevin, unknowingly, how his parents died and how he was just getting over his dislike of dragons. Kevin's heart ached as he listened to Ben cry and get everything off his chest.

"Ben it's gonna be okay. Yeh, I know you don't wanna go to the Academy, but you've got to understand that if another Dragon Rider war breaks out, it will be harder to win this one. Before, Paragon had many ally wild dragons, but with the way things are going, they won't have that much help so they're doing this so that the people who are left behind are trained enough to defend their families from those who would hurt them," Kevin said in a soothing voice. Kevin started rubbing Ben's back in a circular rotation, trying to calm the boy down. It seemed to work as Ben's jerky movements and cries began to lessen. Kevin smiled to myself and walked him and Ben over to his bed. They sat down and Ben laid his head against Kevin's shoulder. The raven looked down at the now calm brunette and smiled to himself.

"Hey, Ben, what if I told you that I may have thought of a way that you won't have to be at the Academy alone?" Kevin asked as he smirked.

Ben pulled away from Kevin to look into the raven's eyes and saw that Kevin was sincere in his questioning. Ben smiled for the first time since he had gotten home and hugged Kevin. "Really Kevin? You think you can get into the Academy too?"

Kevin looked down at Ben and replied, "Well I'm not sure if _I _can join the school but I'll be there as much as possible routing for you and I think I may know a way that a certain black dragon could become your partner." Ben's started to squeal with joy as Kevin told him this. Ben became so excited that he jumped off the bed and gave Kevin a kiss on the cheek and ran off to his room.

However, a certain raven was in shock from the sudden kiss. He slowly reached and placed his hand to the spot where Ben's lips pressed against his cheek. That area felt slightly warm, so Kevin knew he was blushing, and for the first time in his young life, Kevin was feeling on top of the world. After a few moments of bliss, Kevin got up and left his room.

Walking down the hallway, he stopped in front of Ben's grandparents' bedroom. He knocked on the door softly, and waited for a reply. After a few moments, the door opened to reveal a tired-looking Max. Max looked at Kevin and saw that the boy seemed worried about something, so trying his best he woke up and asked, "Kevin is something wrong?"

Kevin took a deep breath before he replied. "Mr. Tennyson, I want to talk to you about the upcoming war and show you something."

Max looked at Kevin with a suspicious expression, then agreed anyway. Kevin asked Max if there was someplace private they could go and talk, so Max led Kevin to the basement of the house, which had actually been renovated into a practice area for a dragon rider. Once Max closed and locked the door, his expression became hard and cold as he asked, "Alright Kevin what's this all about?"

Kevin looked at Max with a calm face and said, "Mr. Tennyson, normally I wouldn't suggest something like this but I think you and the Dragon Rider Council should start these new batch of trainees with the ancient ways of dragon riding."

It took less than a second for Max's face to go black as he thought about what Kevin had just said. "Kevin, how do you know about that?" Max asked as his senses came back.

Kevin sighed and took a few steps back. "The reason why I know about the ancient arts are because every royal dragon is trained to know them in case they need to be used." Kevin's body soon began to glow with a dark purple-colored aura, and began to change, expand and grow. For the second time, Max witnessed a dragon change in front of him. However, this time it was more shocking to see a human change into a dragon. When the metamorphosis was complete, Kevin was in his true form, the dragon of legend, the terror of darkness, the black dragon.

_TBC_…..

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Okay everyone there you go another chapter down and a lot more fun to look forward to. Thanks for all the support everyone and I hope you will continue to praise this headache of a story. **


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or any of its reincarnations.

**Hey everyone, I'm glad you liked the last chapter and for those of you who are wondering why I stopped it there… Well I had to find a way to get you all to come back to this story so a cliffy felt needed. Now that you all know that Kevin's revealed himself to Max, I can have a lot more fun. In this chapter there will be a bit a fluff between Kevin and Ben, but nothing major, not until they are alone…Have fun reading!**

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Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 6_

The next morning, after Kevin's revealing himself to Max, the older man called a meeting for the members of the Dragon Riders Council. All twelve members were told that this was a very important meeting and they should report to the meeting room of at the Academy by 10 am. While most of the older council members, the retired ones, didn't wish to come, the two youngest told them that if they didn't, that whatever decisions needed to be made would be done without them. This got the others out of their beds faster, knowing that the two youngest members would more than likely come up with a new law that would get them kicked off the Council for being lazy. Max was glad to have the two, Marello Martelli, and Natasha Crane, on the Council, seeing that these two always would scare the others into doing what needed to be done. The Council, for many years, had been made up of retired Dragon Riders or those who were veteran dragon riders and one of the requirements were to master the ancient style of Dragon Riding, which normally takes over a decade of practice. However Marello, and Tasha, as she preferred to be called, had mastered in it in four short years, and due to such incredible talent, they were given seats in the Council.

When Kevin and Max left that morning, Kevin left a note saying that Max was taking him around town to see if he could find a job, which the two thought would be a good idea to let Ben think that for the moment. Kevin was told by Max the night before that he would have to tell Ben the truth about himself, and if he didn't want to hurt Ben or really piss him off, he'd better tell him soon.

As the pair made it to the Academy, Kevin shivered at the intense feeling he was getting from the building. It was his first time at the place, but from what he was feeling, this Academy had a few secrets hiding within its walls. Max led Kevin through the twisting halls, until they came to a pair of ancient-looking doors. Kevin pushed the doors open and stepped inside the room with Max right behind him.

The walls of the room were made of stone and a large crescent-moon shaped table in the center. Twelve chairs sat around the table and Kevin figured this was where he'd meet the members of the Council. Kevin looked to Max and asked, "Mr. Tennyson, do you think you could bring my dad here? I'm sure he'd like to know what I'm up to." Max smiled and told Kevin he'd bring him in. With a quick click of his hand over his summoner, Devlin was soon brought through the mystic gateway. As the light cleared from the mystic glyph, Devlin looked at Max with an odd expression wondering why he'd been summoned. He then heard a familiar clearing of the throat.

The elder dragon turned around quickly and saw his son. Devlin smiled and ran to his son and started to nuzzle his neck. Kevin laughed at his dad for being an overemotional parent, but returned the dragon type hug with one of his own. Devlin stepped back and looked Kevin over, making sure he was okay. "Kevin, it's good to see you. I know this isn't the best time to ask, but may I sample a bit of your energy?" the dragon king asked. Kevin nodded his head and closed his eyes. Devlin then took his claw and placed it over his chest and took a small portion of Kevin's energy.

Golden dragons have two different abilities that made them quite useful. The first and most primary ability they possessed was to sample another dragon's energy and use the abilities of that dragon. The second was the ability to shape shift into another dragon. Now that Devlin had absorbed Kevin's energy, he began to change from his dragon form to what he'd look like if he were born a human. Once the change was done, Devlin stood about the same height as Kevin and Max, them both being about 6 ft even, his build was slim, but muscular and his hair was as dark as Kevin's but nowhere near as long. All in all Devlin made a handsome human, and the best part was he finished just in time. The other Council members started making their way into the room. Many of them stared at Kevin and Devlin, but didn't say anything until the meeting started.

When everyone arrived, Wes Green, the head of the Council, started off. "Max, why have you called such a meeting of the council?" Everyone's attention turned to Max, who stood in the middle of the crescent-shaped table. "I've called this meeting to address the matter of the students who are being drafted into our ranks. I know there is nothing we can do about this, but I believe we should take a different route with them than just training them as we have with the other students."

Many of the members looked at each other, confused by Max's words. One of them stood up this time and asked, "Max what do you mean by taking a different route on their training?"

"With these new students, I say we teach them the old ways," Max said with authority. This caused most of the council members to burst out into arguments about how the idea was ludicrous. After a moment, Wes slammed his hand down on the table. The sound of his hand making contact made everyone become silent and look to their leader. Letting out a sigh, Wes looked at his old friend and asked, "Max, of all things why should we teach them the old ways? And what of the last graduating class? Don't they matter in this?"

Max nodded and let his eyes drift over to Kevin to explain. The young dragon stepped forward and said sternly, "The reason why Max is insisting on the old ways of dragon riding is because of the information I have obtained." One of the eldest members snarled at Kevin and asked rudely, "And why should we believe a word you say?" Kevin snarled at the old man and let the veil of magic that transformed him into his human form revert. Some of the members of the council looked terrified at the appearance of the black dragon, while others smirked at the dragon. "_**You dare question my integrity, human? I am Kevin E. Levin, next in line to rule over all dragons, and the black dragon of legend. You got a problem pudgy**__?_" The member who spoke against Kevin shrunk in his seat as he realized he had just pissed someone who was not to be trifled with. Now that Kevin was satisfied that no one would interrupt him again, he smirked and started to explain to them what he knew.

"Alright about a month after I left the Dragon Palace, I was taking a rest by a river when some guys threw a steel cable net over me. I tried to fight them off, but after a long day of flying I was tired, they got me pretty easily (He hated to admit that). They dragged me back to their camp and presented me to their leader. I looked up and saw that it was my uncle who was leading these guys. Uncle looked furious when he noticed it was me trapped in the net. He actually let loose a stream of fire at one of them and called them imbeciles. After a few threats, the guy released me and uncle smiled at me. 'Nephew, I had heard you left home, but I never thought you would,' he said like the pretentious prick that he is. I told him I didn't want to be someone's tool so I left to find someplace safe to stay. Uncle nodded his head and said that yes I was a very powerful tool, that whatever side I joined would more than likely gain the help of the wild dragons. I knew he was right, but it only made me think that I was another weapon. However Uncle told me that if I joined him, he wouldn't treat me as a tool and after the war, he'd let me stand beside him as his second-in-command."

Devlin looked at his son as if he'd grown a second head. Aggregor never did something for nothing so he waited for Kevin to finish.

"I told him I'd think about it, so he proceeded to show me around his camp. What I saw is nothing less than an army of hardened humans training alongside some of the oddest dragons. From what Uncle told me, a lot of humans he gathered were criminals and he used an old ritual to bind them to a dragon. I know he did something else in that ritual, because those dragons' eyes were completely black. They were being controlled, and a lot of the moves I saw them using were attacks and abilities that only the old way of dragon- riding could provide. I left after that but I know Uncle is still training them to be more monstrous than they were before. If you guys wanna win this war, you're going to have to teach these kids the old ways and that goes for the sorcerers as well. The old ways will provide you with more power and more choices in battle. I don't know why you all turned to the ways you all use now, but it just may have cost you your freedom."

The young member of the Council, Marello Martelli, smirked as he stood up. "Honestly I have to agree with the dragon prince. The old ways did provide us with a great deal of power and better understanding of dragons. However, it was because the leaders of this council that over two hundred years, didn't wish to have a dragon or didn't have the power they wanted, was the reason why most of the old ways were put away. We have said it was for the safety of future dragon riders, but it was mostly so the council members at the time could tame a dragon that wanted it, not a dragon whose heart and soul harmonized with their own. I say we vote to reinstate the old ways and teach them to the new graduating class, at least those who have a dragon that can harmonize with them, and to the next group we have coming."

Tasha smiled at her young friend's vigor and stood beside him. "I agree with Marly and I will volunteer to teach the new students, and Marello will assist me. And before any of you old coots try to stop us, let me put it this way, _we're _ going to teach them in a way they can master the old ways faster than the way you forced us to learn it on our own." She glared at the other council members for good measure, while her grandfather, Wes Green, smirked and smiled at his granddaughter.

"I will vote along with the young ones. From what Kevin has told us, Aggregor is taking this war to heart and has even taken the escaped criminals under his wing. We must do everything in our power to protect this kingdom. If you are as smart as I think you are, you'll agree with me," Wes said as he looked at the other members. Many of the remaining eight members weren't sure of how to vote, but they knew it would be best to go along with the head of the council until, one spoke out. "And how do you suppose we teach the graduate class? There are no other masters in the old ways other than us."

"That's where you're wrong Driscoll. I myself have mastered the old ways before the days of this council. I told those selfish fools before they did away with the old ways that this would come back to bite them in the buns," Paradox said coming into the room. This made everyone in the room look at him, but Marello was the first to ask something that everyone was somewhat thinking. "Wait you told the councils of two hundred years ago that doing this was a bad idea? How old are you then? As you just said, you master the old ways before the days of this council and it's been around for at least eight hundred years."

Paradox waved his hand in front of his face in a carefree manner. "That's not an important matter right now, what _is_ important is getting the new students ready for Aggregor. I propose we split them up into teams after they have gotten control of the basics, then splitting them into teams later. I have also taken the liberty to speak with the headmistress of Magix Academy. She agrees with Kevin's plan and has even called in the help of a few retired Anodites to help train the students in the old ways of magic. Once we get them all trained enough, I say we pair them off with the sorcerers to help their effectiveness in battle."

As the day went on, Kevin and Devlin left the Council meeting room to let the details to be worked out between them and the Magix Council, the council that governs those with the ability to control magic. Devlin and Kevin sat outside the school eating lunch, when Devlin looked over at his son. "Kevin, I know I haven't done the best job of being a good parent, but please hear me out. I never meant to make you feel as if you're just a tool to me. I love you son, but I didn't want to see the generations of work that we dragons have done alongside the humans die out," Devlin explained hoping his son would understand.

Kevin turned to his dad and smiled before saying, "Don't worry 'bout it, Pa. I know how you feel. I found something I wanna protect among the humans. I know I may end up being someone's partner now, but it doesn't scare me as much as it used to."

"Oh really, I'm glad. So would this something happen to be Max's grandson would it?" Devlin asked with a smirking smile.

Kevin started to choke on his food, and turned to face his father with a surprised expression and a blush.

Devlin started to laugh at his son's expression and said, "You have his scent all over you. So, when are you going to tell the boy the truth?"

Kevin sighed and told his dad he was planning on telling him that night. Devlin nodded his head and went back to eating quietly with his son.

As the evening approached, Kevin entered the Tennyson house tired from all the training he had gone through with his dad. It was an odd but good feeling to actually hang out with his dad and not getting into an argument with him. Once he was inside and used the bathroom that was connected to his room, Kevin went to look for Ben to tell him who he truly was. However, his plan was shot down when he heard the yell of a _very _livid Tennyson. Kevin quietly snuck into the living room to find Ben breaking a solid wood table in half with his fist. The young dragon gulped as he walked into the room and cleared his throat. Ben turned to Kevin with a grief-stricken face. The young teen ran to Kevin and threw himself at the raven.

In the few days he had known Kevin, the older teen had shown Ben that he would be there for him and would never turn his back on him. So while he was truly distressed, his mind mentally wanted nothing more than to go to Kevin and make him beat all the people who gave him a headache. As Ben wrapped his arms around Kevin's waist and buried his face into Kevin's chest, Kevin was shocked that the brunette had done this. After a moment of initial shock, Kevin wrapped his arms around Ben's back and held him close. Slowly, Kevin began to draw circles onto Ben's back to try and calm the younger teen down. Once Ben seemed to calmed down to where he'd bring his head out from its hiding spot, Kevin looked down into red irritated eyes.

"Ben, what's wrong? Why were you crying before?" Kevin asked worriedly. Ben sniffed as he nodded his head. Kevin growled lightly under his breath and decided they needed some air. With a few swift movements, Kevin and Ben were soon standing in the middle of the Tennyson's backyard. Kevin looked around to make sure no one was around just in case he revealed himself to Ben, and was happy to see that the closest neighbor was a good distance from the house. Turning his attention back to the brunette, Kevin asked what had been bothering him.

"W-well around 1, another letter from the academy appeared on my bed," Ben started to explain. Kevin nodded his head in understanding and instantly started to feel guilty about this. "I didn't want to read the stupid thing, but it appeared through express magical delivery, so it meant that it was important. When I read it, they said I was going to have to move into the school's on-campus _dorms _due to a new procedure that we were going to be learning. Kevin, that means they're taking me away from here – from you. I know I didn't like the idea of going to the school, but if you were waiting here for me to come home to, I wouldn't have minded so much, but now I don't want to report. Kevin I know I haven't known you long but you mean a lot to me."

"You know that the entire day, I spent thinking about you? I was wondering what you were doing? Who you were with? If you had enough food to eat? Kevin, I don't really know for sure but I know that I'm slowly becoming obsessed with you." The brunette blushed as he confessed his feelings and Kevin couldn't have felt any happier.

"Ben, are you saying you like me?" Kevin asked attentively. Ben's only answer was the nod of his head, and Kevin smiled at the brunette and gave him a tight hug. "Ben, you don't know how glad I am to hear you say that." However his smiled faded a bit as he thought of what was going to happen next. He sighed and looked into the beautiful eyes of youngest Tennyson. "Ben, I honestly care for you and want nothing more to protect you, but there's something else you have to know about me. Ben, when I told you all that stuff about my family earlier – it was a lie; but before you jump to any conclusion, let me show you who I really am."

TBC….

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Okay so I know you all are like WTF? Sorry i gotta keep you all coming back for more so please don't hate me. Well thnx again for reading and I'll type some more this week. TTFN...**


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 nor will I in the future.

**Okay so I know a lot of you want to find me and strangle me for leaving off where I did. But I did it because I was getting tired and I wanted you all to have something to read this week. So it's time for a question. Should the new dragon riders live with their partner dragon or in the stables like the others? Oh and here a request from me to all my fans. Will some illustrate for this fan fic? I wanna see how you all see the dragons and characters of this world.  
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Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 7_

The young dragon prince was normally a confident and proud dragon, and never before had he been nervous about revealing himself to a _human_ who he was. All the other humans he revealed himself to would cower in fear of his legendary power, but for once in his life he hoped for the opposite. Ben was someone that had grown a special place in his heart and he didn't want him to fear his true face. However it seemed fate was just as cruel as she was merciful, Ben had taken a few steps back when the transformation started and a horrified expression stretched across his face. Kevin's hopes were slightly dashed as he held on to them for a moment longer.

"K-Kevin is t-that really you?" the frightened Tennyson asked as he looked over the larger and powerful dragon's form. As Ben looked over the new form of his friend, Ben remembered this was the form of the dragon he saved almost a week ago, but it wasn't till now that he realized how big or how easily that dragon could've crushed him.

In a slightly deeper voice, Kevin answered softly, "Yeh, Ben, it's me. I'm sorry I lied to you, but after you saved me I wanted to learn more about ya. You're the first human to see me in my true form and not want to try and tame me or catch me and sell me to some nutcase dragon lover. You don't know what kind of a relief that was for me. I've grown up in a palace where I was pampered and spoiled, but I was taught by many instructors that humans were selfish and cruel. I never believed them until I went out into the human world when I turned 11; let's just say I was inclined to believe my instructors for a while, but my dad would always tell me about how noble the dragon riders were, so my hope in humans laid with them. "

"When my uncle left to start his war, I left a few months later and roamed the country. What I saw started to change my beliefs in humans. I saw how many had nothing to give to those that had less than them and give happily and willingly. It was about two months later when I ran into you and you helped change everything I thought about humans. I realize now that humans are just like dragons, there are good ones and there are bad ones."

As Kevin finished, he dropped his head to hide his face. Kevin soon felt the sting of tears starting to form at the corner of his eyes. '_Great, now Ben can see how much of a wuss I really am too,'_ the dragon thought with disdain. It was a moment later when he felt a pair of hands take hold of his face and lift it up. Kevin knew the softness of these hands to be Ben's and was astonished to see Ben lifting his head to meet his eyes. Beautiful toxic green eyes stared back at coal dark eyes, and as Ben studied them, he saw the hurt, compassion, and the longing in Kevin's stare. It was at that moment, Ben let go of his worries and leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Kevin's scaly cheek.

Kevin's eyes grew wide as he pulled back and looked at Ben with a shocked expression adorning his face. Ben was blushing hard, and turned his head away from Kevin, until he felt a familiar pair of hands take hold of his waist and pull him close. As Ben collided with a hard and muscled-out chest, Ben felt Kevin nuzzle against the top of his head. Smiling at Kevin's actions, Ben wrapped his arms around Kevin's torso and snuggled into it. The two stayed like this for a few minutes, until Ben pulled away reluctantly, and asked, "Kevin, I know this is the worst time to ask this but umm, can I really date a dragon?"

Kevin looked down at Ben and gave him a swift answer. He bent down and pressed his lips onto Ben's. The kiss was soft and chaste, but behind if Ben could feel Kevin's own worries, but what he felt most was that Kevin wanted nothing more but to be with Ben. Ben smiled at the feeling and kissed Kevin back and let all his worries fall to the side for now.

An hour passed as the two lovers sat outside and enjoyed the warm night air. They talked about anything and everything, from Ben's love for comics, to Kevin's desire of seeing a movie. Even though the two were born in different worlds, they proved one thing, teens are all the same.

When they finally decided to go inside, they reluctantly went to their separate rooms. Neither of them wanted to try and explain to Max why they were in bed together especially with him knowing Kevin was a dragon. So they wished each other and good night and went to bed happy.

The weekend came and went quickly for Ben and Kevin, as they went out on their first official date Saturday evening. Kevin paid for everything they did that night, with money his father had given him as an allowance. Every Drak, the form of currency in Paragon, which Kevin had, was spent on him and Ben and the two enjoyed every moment. They started out going to the arcade, where Kevin learned his new-found love of racing. Next they went out eat at Mr. Smoothy, and last but not least they went to the movies. Kevin had wanted to see the new live-action Sumo Slammers movie, which Ben was dying to see as well. Overall, it was a good evening for the couple and they basked in the feeling of a good night kiss.

Monday approached too quickly for the pair and Kevin was more nervous than ever this morning. He soon remembered what would be happening later today and he worried that he may not be chosen. However he never told Ben any of this and told him he was worried about him going to the Academy and getting hit on by the upper classmen. Ben laughed at Kevin and gave Kevin a hug, as well as grabbed Kevin's large muscled ass. "Kevin, no one's gonna take me from you, trust me. Just don't turn into a big fat ugly dragon and you'll be fine," Ben teased as he kissed Kevin. Kevin smiled into the kiss and wrapped his arms around Ben's waist until they heard someone clearing their throat. Both jumped away quickly and stared in horror as Verdona stood behind them smirking.

"I hate to break up this little love fest, but Ben needs to finish packing up his room, and Kevin you need to go see your father this morning, am I correct?" Verdona stated with her smirk still gracing her face. Ben blushed and ran up the stairs to finish packing up his room and now Kevin was left with a very powerful Anodite standing in front of him. He gulped nervously knowing that in this form she could pretty much hurt him and could easily get away with it.

"Kevin, I know that you care for my grandson, and I also know you're a dragon, a black dragon at that. So I'll make you a deal, Max won't find out about you two till you're ready to tell him, as long as you promise to protect him and never break his heart. Trust me when I say this, my powers may not work on you as well when you change into a dragon, but I'll guarantee you that with me and Max working together Ben will be wearing you as a new jacket if you hurt him," Verdona said in her sweet and loving grandmotherly voice.

Kevin paled again at this threat, knowing that she meant every word. He nodded his head and headed towards the Academy to meet with his dad. They were going to hang out in town to have a little more father/son time.

Ben finished packing his things and called for his grandmother. The older woman teleported into Ben's room and asked if he was ready; when Ben nodded his head, Verdona let her mana flow out of her body and spread throughout the room. The ten boxes that had all the things Ben would be taking to the school with him began to shrink and floated into a gray messenger bag that Ben would be taking with him. Once she finished, Verdona told Ben to take her hand and she'd drop him off at the school. Ben said okay and took his grandmother's hand and soon the two were off to the Academy.

When Ben arrived at the Academy, he took out his acceptance letter and reread it to make sure he was heading towards the correct part of the school. As he opened the letter, it began to glow, and shake violently in his hand. He let the paper go and watched it burst into light and created a portal. Ben eyed the portal suspiciously, when someone stepped through it. Much to Ben's relief it was Max with a smile on his face. "Ah, Ben, I was wondering when your grandmother was going to get here. Well let's go; the members of the council are going to be introducing you and the other new students to the entire school shortly." Max said.

Ben followed his grandfather through the twisting hallways of the Academy until he found himself entering through the side door of the auditorium. Once inside, Ben noticed a group of five people standing close to the curtains that led to the stage. The young brunette walked over to the group, but before he could say anything to them, one of them turned around and smiled towards him.

"So he must be the last guy we were waiting on," a dark skinned teen said cheerfully.

Being gave the guy an once-over and blushed unconsciously. The young man who greeted Ben had rich mocha skin, deep but warm hazel eyes, and neat dreaded hair that ,the fell along the sides of his face. He stood about Ben's height roughly 5'-9", and from what Ben could see, he had a decent amount of muscle on him.

After looking at the first guy, Ben decided to check the others out as well.

The next guy Ben looked at was slightly similar to the first one. However, this one had darker colored skin than the first and had his hair cut into a nice bald-fade. His eyes were a deep brown and held excitement, as well as anxiety. Ben knew the feeling all too well as he thought about how he never wanted to join the Academy. The young male looked no more than 14 or 15, but he seemed to be fit enough to join the dragon riders no problem.

The third and fourth males Ben gazed at had similar features, but their facial structures were completely different. The first one Ben looked at was a tall and handsome young man with slightly tanned skin, and messy blonde hair. He had a defined face showing off fine cheek bones and had a cute, slight cleft in his chin. Cerulean blue eyes were the most stunning feature Ben saw on the guy, even with him being as tall as Kevin and with the same amount of muscle.

The teen standing next to the teen with cerulean eyes had pale blonde hair that was cut and kept swept neatly along the sides of the teen's head. Icy blue eyes stared back at Ben when he took the time to look, to which Ben soon gazed at the ground. When he lifted his head to look at the guy again, the teen was no longer looking at him, but he wore a smirk on his slight pale features. It was a moment later that Ben could tell that this guy was from a noble family, from the way he stood and acted towards the others in the group.

The last person Ben looked at was a dark, mocha-skinned female. Her hair was much like the other dark-skinned teens in the group; dark almost black-colored hair, but hers was curled and hung around her face. She had warm brown eyes, with a pair of stylish semi-rimmed glasses. However, when Ben looked at her figure, he blushed. The young woman had a very curvy figure and her chest was situated with a pair of large and perky breasts. She stood about the same as most of the people in the group, while it was the two Caucasian males who were taller than the other two. A moment passed as he looked the young woman over and noticed that he was staring at her. Ben blushed and the girl smirked and smiled at Ben, finding him extremely cute for being bashful.

Then everyone jumped in surprise as they heard a voice over the speakers. The assembly had started and soon everyone was introduced, except for the young man with dreads and the young woman with curly hair.

"Now, as you all know, these students and several others will be taking classes on the ways of the Ancient Dragon Riders. The teachers who will be teaching our graduate students will be Max Tennyson, Evan Paradox, and Magister Labrid. We brought two members of the Dragon Rider council to teach the new students the basics of dragon riding, and teaching them the ways of the Dragon Riders. They are Marello Martelli, and Natasha Crane - the two youngest and probably best choices to teach our new students." Wes said as the other two teen-looking figures walked from backstage.

Ben, Alan, Cooper, and Michael stared in awe that the two people they had conversed with backstage were their new teachers, not students. Marello smiled and waved at everyone, while Tasha crossed her arms and smirked at the stupid looks on the boys faces.

_TBC_…

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Okay this chapter is shorter than normal but I want you guys to enjoy this; yes I stop stuff off at the best parts. Anyway, in the next chapter, the boys will begin their training and showing off their skills. TTFN….**


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 and if I did no one under the age of 18 would be allowed to watch.

**Hey everyone it's time again for another chapter of my favorite transforming hero and his hot and sexy partner. Thanks to all of you who send me reviews, it really helps get my gears turning knowing you all want more from me. Well I'm gonna try again and ask if anyone is willing to do fanart for this fic. I would love to see how great you guys are, but if not, then the show will go on. I would like to thank Xeikm, whose stories are reading my drive to write this story, and my wonderful Beta ****Otaku Maiden, ****who has given up a lot of time to proofread my stories and make sure they make sense. Alright, now it's time for the main event. Enjoy!**

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Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 8_

After the introduction ceremony, Ben and the others were released to their instructors. Ben felt nervous as he looked at the two people who'd be watching over him. As he looked over at Marello, the young man smiled and started speaking, "Alright everyone, Tasha and I are going to introduce ourselves. Yeah, yeah I know they did that in there, but I think it'd be better for us if we all introduced ourselves."

"First off, my name is Marello Laun Martelli. I was born and raised here in Bellwood, and I come from a long line of dragon riders. I have two young cousins training to be dragon riders but one was unwilling to go through it at first. My partner is Arc; he is a Glacier blue dragon, he does breath fire, however his flames are not that powerful, however he does have the power to breathe a powerful mist the turns whatever it touches to ice. Hmm…Well that's all I've got for now, Tasha you wanna go now?"

Tasha, who had her arms still crossed under the breasts, nodded her head and smiled at her students. "My name is Natasha Alexandra Crane. I was born on a small island not too far off Paragon's shoreline. I became a dragon rider under the request of my grandfather. At first I hated all the training but after awhile, I learned to become one with the free-willed spirit of a dragon, which is something I'm glad I didn't miss out on. The dragon I call my partner is a Lavender Sors Dico dragon. Her name is Xylene, and she has telepathic and telekinetic abilities, and that's all I will tell you right now. I want the short-haired blonde to start off."

Michael rolled his eyes and looked at the group of peers and instructors. "I'm Michael La' Stat Morningstar. I am 17-years-old and my father is a respected commander in the Royal Army. I like to read, so once you show me the library I will be spending a lot of time there, unless _someone_ would like to keep me company…" the blonde said as he smirked in Ben's direction.

Ben merely shook his head and replied, "Sorry I'm taken."

Marello snickered behind his hand and looked to Cooper to start.

The tall teen blushed as he looked into his teacher's eyes. "Umm…Well I-I'm Cooper James Daniels and I'm not really a people person. Growing up, I was more interested in technology than people and dragons; when my parents found out I had the potential to be dragon rider, they tried to get me to into the idea, but after I told them that it really wasn't for me, they let it go."

Alan looked over at Cooper and said, "Yeah and he wasn't this tall and sexy up until five months ago."

Cooper blushed at Alan's statement and glared at him. Marello sighed and looked to Alan to be the next one to start his introduction.

Alan cleared his throat and gave them a bright smile, "The name's Alan Ziggy Albright. I have an older brother who just graduated the Academy and is in special training with his dragon. Manny Arm "big" strong is my bro and if you're wondering, we're half-brothers; we share the same mom, but have different dads. Marello over there is my oldest cousin and kicks ass in almost any video game he picks up. As for me, I just wanna go back to being a civilian. I said no the first time and I just wish they'd just let me go."

When Alan finished, Tasha gestured for Ben to go. The brunette swallowed and let out a nervous laugh. "Uh, the name's Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, but just call me Ben. I live with my grandparents and cousin. My grandmother is a sorceress and is one of the best out there. Over the last few days, I regained the love of dragons that I had when I was little, and I don't think being here will be as bad as I thought it was going to be."

As Ben finished, he started to smile at the thought of Kevin, but straightened up as he felt the stares of three confused students.

Marello cleared his throat and said, "Alright then, now let's get the first part of our day started. I'll be taking you all on a tour of the grounds, while Tasha gets ready for a special event happening after the tour. I'm warning you now, if you try and make a run for it, I will catch you and make your stay here far more embarrassing than it has to, ask Alan if you don't believe me."

Ben looked over at Alan, who had an awkward smile on his face, and started rubbing the back of his head.

Marello turned around and asked everyone to walk ahead of him so he could watch them. The tour was an interesting one, if you could call it that. Marello took them to almost every building on the grounds and told them when it was built, what it was used for, and something he did to screw up with a teacher while he was at school here. Everyone found Marello easy to talk to, though the young man had an odd sort of charm to him. The second to last building they came to were the dorms they'd be staying in.

"Alright guys and here are the dorms; you'll be staying on the third floor of this place, and I'll show you which hallway is yours. However, we have one _little_ problem, we only have three bedrooms open in this hallway for you guys and I was hoping two of you would be willing to share a room," Marello said as the group walked into the building.

The first to answer was Michael, who stated that he wouldn't be sharing a room with anyone. Marello rolled his eyes at the bratty kid, and looked at the other three. Cooper sighed and said he wouldn't mind sharing a room since he had done it before, and a moment later Alan said he would volunteer to be Cooper's roommate. Ben eyed Alan suspiciously for a moment and noticed a slight difference in his skin color. It was almost impossible to see with his dark skin color, but if you looked very closely you could see it. Ben thought it was cute to see Alan blush, once he realized he sounded a little too excited about being Cooper's roommate.

Marello nodded his head and said, "Okay, now I'll show you guys your rooms. They were designed with the idea of housing a dragon and you in the room so it may be a bit big."

Marello took them through the lobby to an elevator and straight to the third floor. As the door opened, the new students got a good look at many of the upperclassmen playing around and rough housing. They were incredibly loud, which quickly started to bother Marello. The normally smiling young man glared out into the crowd. As he walked out of the elevator, Marello started to shout. "What the hell do you morons think you're doing?" Everyone who was in the hallway stopped moving and looked towards Marello. One of the seniors smiled at the shorter man and walked over to him.

"Well, we were having some fun, and getting' a lil' exercise. How about you join us cutie?" the foolish teen said.

Marello's glare turned icy-cold as he looked at the older teen. "Were you there this morning for the announcement of the new students and teachers?" Marello asked.

The teen laughed saying that everyone who was in the hallway decided to skip it. Marello smirked and looked back to his students. "Well maybe next time you should come, seeing as I'm one of the new teachers."

The older teen laughed thinking Marello was just trying to look tough. "No way someone as small and as cute as you could ever be a teacher." It was then everyone in the room felt a sudden spike of overwhelming power flow throughout the floor.

The older teen nervously looked back towards Marello and saw a strange icy-blue aura running wildly over his slim frame. Marello's face was hidden behind a screen of dreads, but as he lifted his head to the older students, they all knew they were up Shit Creek.

"_You've got some nerve to call me __**short**__ jackass; I've beaten infant trolls with more respect than you. Now all of you have till the count of three to clear this floor and get out of my sight before I do something a lil' drastic,_" Marello said in a creepy over-lapped deep voice. Ben, Michael, Cooper and Allan shook in nervousness as they thought about what kind of man their teacher would be, if this pissed him off. Marello counted to three and since none of the fools had any sense to run, Marello's eyes began to glow the same color as the aura that surrounded his body.

A serial-killer crazed smile crept its way onto Marello face as he raised his right arm and opened his palm to them. The strange aura soon wrapped itself around his hand and Marello flexed his hand slightly and released a beam of energy that filled the rest of the hall. As the beam vanished, Marello dropped his hand back down and turned back to his students with an apologetic grin on his face. "Sorry guys, I'll have to show you your rooms after class. I just froze the entire floor, and I know I'm gonna get in trouble for this." Marello said, scratching the back of his head. When Ben and the others looked behind their teacher, they were stunned to see that the hallways were encased in ice, as well as the idiots who skipped classes.

"Umm, are they going to be okay?" Alan asked as he pointed to the upperclassmen. Marello straightened up and walked back to the elevator. "Those idiots will be fine, cold, but they'll thaw out in an hour or so."

The new students looked at one another and shivered in fear of what just happened, but they quickly boarded the elevator and followed Marello out of the building, as said teacher pulled out his looking glass and called someone to unthaw the third floor.

After a quick walk from the dorms, they came to a sectioned-off portion of the campus. These buildings seemed older than the rest of the grounds, but still held a sort of old-world charm. _**(A/N: Think old medieval castles.)**_ As they entered the building, Marello turned to face the students and asked, "So does anyone know what building this is?" One answered his question and the young council member sighed. "Okay, so this was part of the original castle where the first King of Paragon ruled." Everyone perked up at the news and began to look around them. As they looked and stared at the old building, they soon came into a large room with statues of different busts of several dragon types. Alan scouted closer to Cooper and looked nervously around the odd room. They began to pass shelves full of old and creepy-looking objects, as well as a few jars of body part that most people would never have displayed to the public.

They soon came to the center of the room with an altar in the middle of a huge magical circle. When Marello turned to face them again, his face was relaxed but serious as he began speak once more.

"Alright guys, this is where your journey begins. This was the site of an ancient ritual called the_ Calling_. It was held here due to its position. If any of you studied magic, would know that this room sits atop of a powerful spiritual nexus and it helps to make the _Calling_ more effective. The ritual opens one's heart and mind to every dragon on the planet. This process helps to find a rider his _true_ dragon partner. When I say true partner, I mean that a dragon and its rider can become almost as one on a mental level; they will have similar beliefs and can act on the other's moves without words. This ritual was ended when a member of the Dragon Rider Council wasn't divined the dragon he thought he was suited for. It was then that riders go out and try to tame the dragons. As new riders went out and began taming dragons, the methods that the first dragon riders used soon stopped working. We now know that to use the ancient methods, a dragon and its rider's heart must resonate as one. So you can imagine how lucky few were to tame a dragon and were able to meet the requirements necessary to learn the ancient methods. That is why you all are here; you will be the first class of students to help bring back the old ways. I know that what we ask of you all is great, but please listen to me. There is a war brewing and we're going to need all the help we can get. If you won't learn these methods for the sake of the riders, learn them so you can protect the ones you love."

Marello's speech touched each of the students differently, but they all agreed that they would learn the old ways to protect what they held dear.

Then the sound of clapping and the clicking of heels filled the room, Tasha walked into the dimly lit room. She wore a soft smile and patted her young friend on the back and looked at the group of four. "If you still wish to leave, this will be your last chance to do so. I know that the king made your attendance mandatory, but we'll just tell him you never showed up and t just let it go." Tasha said softly.

Ben looked at the others curiously and said, "I'm staying; I'm going to defend what's most important to me and I know dragon training will help me do this." Ben stepped towards the smiling dragon riders and turned to face his peers. Alan looked over at Michael and Cooper and began to walk over towards Ben. "I'm with him. I'm not gonna sit on the sidelines and let my big bro have all the fun."

Cooper watched Alan walked and stand by the dread-haired instructor and silently followed the call to his heart.

Michael sighed and said he'd fight for justice as well. "Besides, my father wouldn't let me return home with such an excuse of me being too scared." With everyone in agreement, Tasha told the students to stand in one of the four empty glyph-like circles and close their eyes.

Tasha and Marello walked to the altar and placed their hands over a blood ruby that was imbedded into the altar's shrine. They two closed their eyes and began to chant in a forgotten tongue.

"_**Patefacio vestri pectus pectoris , patefacio vestri mens. Permissum lemma exsisto sentio per extraho quisnam resonate per is animus. Extraho quisnam exsisto recedentia quod near permissum vos animus sono per is unus quod reperio vos socius a amicus , quod a pectus pectoris tribuo elucido per divinus unus!**_**"**

The blood-red gem began to shine and its light soon filled the room. The altar soon allowed the power of the blood gem flow through its stones and into the magic circle itself. As the circle was filled with the odd gem's power, the four students began to feel very lightheaded to the point they were placed in a deep trance. Their bodies began to float in the air and seemed lifeless, and the circle let their souls find the dragon who would match the harmony of their own soul.

Marello and Tasha continued to chant and did their best not to interfere with the spell, however, after nearly twenty minutes, the two young warriors began to grow tired. However, it seemed that their silent prayers were answered as they heard each student call out a color in the same overlapped creepy voice Marello used earlier. The glyph the dragon they called appeared in the empty node and the students soon returned to the ground, waiting for the last portion of the ceremony to take place. Marello and Tasha smiled as Cooper, the last one to call out a color, touched ground.

"_**Extraho quisnam have electus a veho , exorior ut is locus quod sto praeter vos electus unus," **_the two warriors called as the glyphs below each student began to shine with a radiant light.

Once the light began to fade, Tasha smiled as she looked at her students. Each of them was sleeping soundly, tucked under the wing or in Alan's case – tail, of their new partner. However, her eyes grew wide in shock as she looked at the dragon Ben got. The dragon had black scales and a fiery red mane, which belonged to one Kevin E. Levin, prince of the dragons.

_TBC…_

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Okay, so I know I'm late with this story but I was tired and wanted a break, ok….Anyway, I hope you all like this chapter; the next chapter will mark the beginning of training and a lil' more intimate moments for Ben and Kevin. Please review for me so I can start the next chapter, okay? Oh and if you want to know what incantation was used, I've got it below. TTFN…**

_Open your heart, open your mind. Let them be judged by the dragon that resonates with this soul. Dragon who be far and near let your soul sing with this one and find your partner, a friend, and a heart granted to light by the divine one. _

_Dragons who have chosen a rider, come forth to this place and stand beside your chosen one._


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or anything else related.

**Hi everyone sorry about the long wait. If you are a fan of my work you'll notice the update on my Kingdom Hearts story. If not and you only like this one, well I've neglect one of my older stories for this one so I decided to write a chapter for it. So now I'm back on track with this one, but next I'll be updating the KH story. It's just to let you know. So I hope you enjoy.**

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_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 9_

Marello smiled at the sleeping teens and thought the sight was far too cute to resist. He pulled out his looking glass (_**N/A:**_ _A looking glass is basically the equivalent of a cell phone in their world_), and took pictures of each teen and his dragon. Once he was done, he decided it was time for everyone to get up. He walked over to each student and spoke gently to them and shook them a bit and slowly brought them back to the conscious world. Tasha followed her friend's example and went over to Ben to wake the young man up. As she shook him, Ben grumped in his sleep and turned over. Tasha's left eyebrow began to twitch a bit, but she kept her temper in check and she tried again. However this time the brunette mumbled something about buggin' off which cracked the calm expression on Tasha's face.

A large vein began to bulge on the woman's forehead as she raised her fist. With lightning speed, she struck the young Tennyson on the head and yelled at him to get up. Ben let out a shrill cry of pain, to which Tasha smirked at him. "Grandpa I know I don't like to get up, but there's no reason to beat the crap out of me," the young Tennyson said as he sat up rubbing the spot where Tasha hit him. As Ben looked around, he realized he wasn't in his room nor was it Max who woke him up. When Ben turned and looked at the slightly annoyed look on Tasha's face, he gave a nervous laugh and started to try and get up.

He soon looked and noticed he was snuggled up under a black wing; he blushed and tried to move the wing. However as he tried to move Kevin's wing, the dragon grumbled a bit and used his wing to pull Ben closer to him and tried to go back to sleep. Tasha sighed now realizing that she was going to have to wake up Kevin as well if she wanted to get her class started.

Raising her fist once again, she gathered a small amount of her powers into her fist and drove said fist on top of Kevin's head. Said dragon roared in a pained cry as he let go of Ben. Kevin snarled as he got to his feet to see who hit him. His eyes soon fell onto Tasha, who had her hips cocked to the side and her arms crossed just under the breasts. She gave Kevin a stern look, which didn't detour Kevin's anger one bit.

"You've got a lot of nerve to hit me lady. Jus be glad I was taught not to fight a lady," Kevin spat angrily.

Tasha challenging posture stayed in place as she stated, "Try me hatchling, and Ben'll have a new pair of dragon hide shoes. It's you who should be glad I didn't just crack over skull open." When Kevin growled at Tasha once more, the young rider smirked at Kevin. She quickly dropped into a fighting stance and began to let her power flow freely. While the humans other than Marello could only see the outline of a lavender colored aura, the dragons could sense Tasha's power washing over them in waves. It started out small but after a few seconds, it rose and was nearly double of that of Kevin's current power. The black dragon stared in shock at the women as her power levels were still climbing when his would have stopped. He reluctantly backed down and went to stand calmly by Ben.

Tasha nodded her head as she stood back up and walked over towards Marello. As she turned back to everyone, she said, "Alright ladies line up with your dragon standing next to you. Dragons you will be introducing yourselves to us. Tell us your name, dragon type, and any other information you'd like to share."

Once she was facing them again, she pointed to Alan and his dragon to start. The red dragon shook its head as if he knew he'd be first. With a sigh he started his introduction. "The names Flare, as you can see I'm a wingless dragon known as _Volo Incendia_ dragon. We are known for our speed, maneuverability, and our bodies produce a unique oily substance that coats our skin, and with a small spark, we turn into a living fireball, and that's all I feel like tellin ya so go to the next dragon."

Tasha was pleased with Flare's introduction so she went to the next dragon, which happened to be Michael's. The white scaled, and light gray haired dragon took a moment began. "Greetings, my name is Van, and I am a _Lamia _dragon, however we are better known as _Vampirus_ dragons." The other three dragons took an attentive step away from the white dragon, but the white dragon didn't seem to be offended by this. "We are known for draining the energy of other dragons to feed ourselves, and that if we drain enough energy we turn those dragons into ghouls, servants to the one who drained them. In the past we were hunted and killed for this ability, but my kind truly hates the ability we have. We believe that each being was born to be free and our ability would take that gift away so yes we do not like it." Van spoke from his heart and it reached everyone in the room that they wouldn't have to worry about Van feeding off them.

Marello smile at Van, and even walked over to scratch the white dragon under its chin. It purred at the touch and Marello to Copper's dragon to go ahead and start. The odd looking dragon seemed to be very nervous, until Marello walked over and started to stroke its mane. In an instant the younger rider knew why the dragon was so scared. He squatted to look the dragon in the eyes and began to make clicking and slight robotic beeps. A few seconds later the dragon began to answer him back with various clicking and beeps of his own. Marello would sigh every now and again, but still continued his clicking.

It was after five minutes of clicking, Tasha become worried about what was happening. "Marly, what's goin on? Why are you making clicking noises instead of chatting with the hatchling," Tasha asked in a motherly tone. Marello stopped clicking looked back to his friend. "This one's a special type of dragon that most have never seen so he's worried about what the others will think of him," Marello explained.

In an instant Van looked to the grey colored dragon and said, "You don't have to worry about what we think of you little one. Just be who you really are, and forget about what they others think ok?"

The grey dragon looked over at Van and clicked at him as his response. Van gave a nod and watched as the shy dragon's eyes began to glow with an eerie red light. To everyone's surprise, except Marello's, two rings of light appeared from the center of the dragons body and to move to the opposite end of the dragon. When the rings vanished, everyone stared at the newly revealed dragon. The dragon looked very odd as pieces of its body were covered or made of mechanical parts. Ben stared at that odd looking dragon, but what astounded him the most was that this dragon was one of the breeds his mom and dad raised at their farm before it was destroyed.

The gray dragon looked mostly like its normal form, except for its gray coloring and normal looking cybernetic parts that replaced the once biological ones. It was then that the dragon wined, but his rider came to his rescue. "Stop gawking at him! He's already self-conscious about his looks, and none of you are helping," Cooper yelled as he glared at everyone. Soon after the dragon began to chirp and click again. When the young dragon finished, Cooper looked at him and said, "I know I'm over reacting but you're my partner, I'm not gonna let them freak you out and not get pissed off." The bio-cyber dragon began his series of whines and clicks again, and slowly Cooper began to calm down. The blonde soon sighed and told his dragon fine and pulled out his personal looking glass. The dragon soon lifted his neck and a small pair of tentacles separated from the cybernetic portion of its neck. It quickly grabbed the looking glass and began to break the device apart.

As the device fell apart, its pieces were quickly absorbed into the dragon's body. Once it was done, its eyes began to glow blue. It took a few seconds for the dragon to completely link the looking glass into its system, but as soon as it was done, the creature began to hack and cough. Cooper looked slightly worried, but soon a kinda of mechanical voice came from the bio-cybernetic dragon. "Ow! Absorbing devices with magical based systems hurt like hell," the cyber dragon said in a scratchy machine like voice. Everyone began to wonder what was going on when the dragon started to explain. "Hello, I'm sorry I wasn't able to speak to you any sooner. I never downloaded a human language thinking I'd never actually meet one. What you see is one of the only created dragons. I'm a grey Bio-Cybernetic dragon. As you can see that my dragon type are not natural born dragons. We, my clan, were created from the remaining life force of young dragon hatchlings that were lost during the Dragon Rider war. The true grey bone dragons found us while a bit of our life force remained inside our bodies. What they did was capture that life force in a specially designed look glass and took our body back to their caves and used alchemy, the art of magic and science, to rebuild our bodies. When they were done they returned our life force back to our bodies and lived with them. They saved us, but we lost what color we once had and abilities of our dragon kind. Now we have the ability to link with almost any machine and take it over."

When he was done Flare smiled at the young dragon and said, "Cool powers kid, now what's your name?"

It took a moment for the hatchling to realize he hadn't told them his name and apologized. "My name is Baz-el, but you can call me Ship," the dragon smiled and snuggled up to his human. Cooper smiled and started to pet his new friend.

Last but not least was the dragon everyone was waiting to hear about. Kevin however wanted to skip his turn but started to introduce himself anyway. "Names Kevin E. Levin, and as you can see I'm an _Atra Ala dragon, Black Wing dragon._ You all know that legend of how my kind can turn into humans, and its true however he also have another ability. If a dragon gives consent, I can absorb their powers and become more powerful. Because of my dark scales I'm best in night raiders or sneak attacks. So let's get on with these stupid classes I'm gettin pretty bored over here."

Another pulsing vein appeared on Tasha's forehead but she held back her anger and stated, "_We're_ not _done_ with introductions youngling. Marello and I are going to let you meet our dragons, Marello why don't you go first."

Marello gave Tasha a small nod as he reached towards his neck. Digging underneath his shirt, he pulled out a silver chain necklace. Hanging at the bottom of the chain laid an odd looking onyx skeleton key wrapped in thin wire made of silver. Marello took hold of the key and pulled it from the chain and pulled back the long sleeve of his shirt to reveal his Dragianium summoner. It was true that every summoner was different, but the four students and their partner stared at the armguard that was strapped onto Marello's arm. The bottom portion of the armguard was made of quality light blue leather and on top of it was silver metal embedded into the leather. Ancient incantation were inscribed into the band and in the center was upraised portion in the shape of the key that Marello held in his hand. Marello quickly brought the summoner level with his chest, and started letting his power flow into the device.

The light blue aura began to surround Marello once again as he dropped the onyx key into the summoner. As the device began to power up, a spell circle appeared underneath Marello. The circle was the same icy blue color as Marello's aura, and while the other could see that something was coming for the spell circle. In a swift movement, Marello pointed at the spell circle with his index and middle fingers and threw his arm into the air. Once his fingers were pointing to the heavens, a dragon's head came up from the center of the circle. Slowly but surely, the dragon pulled himself out the spell circle until he stood in front of his partner. Finally after the dragon completely came out of the circle, the spell circle faded. In the next second, the students and dragon were shocked to see the large dragon tackle his rider to the ground and started licking his face.

Marello laughed at the loving gesture and did his best to push the large dragon off him. Tasha laughed and looked at to the students. "If you wondering why this dragon's acting like an excited puppy, it due to this being the first time he's seen Marello in six months. Marello's dragon was on a recon mission to see if he could find any trace of Aggregor's forces. It's true the dragon council didn't know that it was a dragon who was leading our enemies, but we knew that something was happening so we sent Marello's dragon. So now that they're together again, he's a little excited."

Marello giddy laugh soon slowed as he finally pushed his friend away and got to his feet. With a smile on his face, he said, "Everyone allow me to introduce my dragon Arc. He's an _Algor T__empestas_ dragon, but he's better known as a Cold Storm dragon, because most of his kind lives in the harsh cold lands in the far north." Arc nodded his head and bowed slightly as his greeting to the others.

Ben and the others looked Arc over and noticed that the dragon had glacier blue scales, a pale gold mane, and a large pair of wings that sat on his back. He had a pair of dark gold horn and claws.

The more the students stared at Arc, the more Tasha thought she should bring out her partner. Once she decided this, she looked down at her Dragianium summoner. The design of Tasha's summoner was the by far one of the most unique. The design of her summoner was based off a ring her mother once owned. The ring was made of a black metal and pressed to look as if it had scales. The face of the ring had a lightning bolt formed from gold on each side, and it had a larger bolt coming down the center. The large bolt ended at the snout of the dragon faced ring. Off to the sides of the larger bolt, sat to small red rubies that were crafted as the eyes for the dragon's face.

Tasha closed her eyes and pressed a kiss to the ring, then balled her hand into a fist. Her aura soon appeared as it had done for Marello; however her aura was a pale lavender color. Once she had gathered enough power, she raised her hand into the air and brought forth her spell circle. It didn't take long for her partner to answer her call as a phantom shadow flew out of the portal. The dragon wrapped itself around its rider in a loving manner. The dragon had lavender scales, a lithe and slightly long body, silver claws and long sliver horns that sat on her head. Her mane was black hair with red undertone, and her most noticeable feature was her dark coal eyes.

When the femme dragon looked at the new recruits, she gave them and curious glance, but swiftly turned her attention to her rider.

"Tasha, please tell me that these _children_ aren't the recruits we're supposed to be training," the femme dragon asked in annoyed voice. Tasha sighed and shook her head at her partner. It was true that the four boys they got weren't much to look at, but Xylene should know better than to judge a book by its cover. While most of the boys looked offended by the femme dragon, the one who spoke first was Marello.

"Xylene, drop the attitude. This isn't the time to start with it and these guys have shown that they have the potential to become strong riders. You of all dragons should know what mean it means to be judged by appearance alone," Marello spoke firmly but it could be seen in Xylene's eyes that the young rider had hit something with her. However to hide her shame, she snorted at the rider and looked to the recruits.

"Well, I guess you all will have to do. My name is Xylene as you have already heard. My dragon breed is the _Tele __Recedentia__Hablar_ dragon, or better known as _Far Talk_ dragon. I know you humans have probably never heard of my kind before. So I'll dumb this down for you as much as possible. My breed has the power over enhance telepathic and telekinetic abilities," Xylene said sounding obviously bored.

"Wait a sec, I thought telepathy and telekinesis was the same thing," Alan said slightly confused. Xylene rolled her eyes at the young, but before she could tell the boy off, someone spoke up.

"Actually Alan, it's a common misconception. Telepathy is the ability to read and communicate with your mind. Telekinesis is more of moving an object with the mind. I believe Xylene dragon type would more used for sabotage, or gathering information from captured enemies. Am I right Xylene," Cooper reasoned looking to the dragon for confirmation.

Xylene was slightly stunned at how well the human had explained her powers, but she quickly recovered and nodded at him. Cooper smiled while his hmmed feeling proud his partner far from being a mindless buffoon.

Now that the introductions were finished, Marello and Arc started to sneak away from the group hoping to spend some alone time with their partner. At least that's what he planned until, "Marello get back here! I'll need your help teaching my class," Tasha called. Marello and Arc sighed as they turned back around and headed back towards the recruits. Tasha gave Marello and his friend a sympathetic smile, but they had work to do before they could go play.

Tasha cleared her throat and looked at the dragons and their rider. "Alright gentlemen, the first lesson you will be learning telepathic communication with your dragon. This is the first step of Mastering the Ancient Ways of the Dragon. The next will be _Dragon Combative_, followed by _Flying_, and finally _Dragon Soul Unity_. The first class will be taught by me and Xylene, and _Combative _will be taught by Marello. For now though Marello will act as my demonstrator, and will help you create the connection with dragon," Tasha explained walking back and forth in front of the recruits.

As the class progressed, it was explained that telepathic communication with your partner was only possible through trust between rider and dragon, as well as opening their hearts to the other. While the dragons trusted the humans, it would take more faith on the human's part for their telepathic link to become possible.

It took the remainder of the day, but by its end, Ben and the others started to open their hearts to the dragons and trust them as well. On the dragons end, they continuously sent messages to the hearts and minds to their riders. Ben, who had fallen for his partner, trusted and opened his heart Kevin first, but kept up the appearance that nothing had happened yet. The next to open a link was surprisingly, Cooper. He was still a bit awkward with the proposition of friends, but he still opened up to Ship and was greeted with a warm feeling flowing into his heart.

After Cooper, was Alan, and finally Michael to open up to their respective dragons. The reason behind Michael's being last was mostly due to him never having much contact with people in general. His parents were always busy and never spent time with their son. The person Michael felt most attached to was their butler, Leon. Leon always did to what Michael told him to do, but after one Leon lost his life trying to protect Michael from a kidnapping attempt. As Leon laid on the ground bleeding to death, Michael rushed to the older man's side and begged him not to go. Michael told him he'd stop acting like a brat if he did, but the older man just laughed at him.

With his last bit of strength, Leon spoke to his young master/charge very softly, "Michael, I have worked for your family for over thirty years now. I've seen all of them turn into cruel and heartless business men, lawyers, and many other things. However you were different. You cared about your family and were saddened when they left you alone. In all my years of working for your family, you were the only one to show any feeling at all other than greed, so I watched out for you hoping to see you blossom into a strong young man. Michael, I still wish to see this, but I won't be able to see it in person so please show mw who you truly are from my place in the clouds."

When Michael lost his that one person, Michael slowly began to change and become more like the cold and callus men of his family. However, when he closed his eyes and was near Van, he heard Leon's words and his heart would open a bit more and more to the heart that reached for his.

Once everyone was connected, Marello and Tasha cheered and told the recruits that they were going to cook a feast to show them how proud they were of accomplishing their first lesson on the first day. Most started too turned down, but when the sound of hungry bellies sounded that were forced to follow Tasha and Marello back to their on campus apartment.

_TBC_…..

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**Hey everyone! I'm sorry this took me so long, but my muses went on strike. However I got a break from stressful job and they soon returned. So here was what I came up with. I hope you all like it. Tell me what you think please. If you do, you will be feeding my muses and I can turn out another chapter. Well TFN…**


	10. Chapter 10

isclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or any of its other incarnations.

**Okay everyone I'm glad you all enjoyed that last chapter. If you all wondering why Kevin was overpowered by Tasha, it due to Kevin's age. Dragons normally don't get their full powers until they reach the age of 20. Kevin will get his full power early, but it won't be till later. So everyone please be patient and I hope you like the BeViny goodness in this chapter.**

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_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 10_

To the student's surprise, when Marello said he'd cook them a feast, he wasn't joking. Marello cooked several dishes from all over the continent, and even made a few special dishes for the dragons. After a few hours of eating, chatting, and just relaxing, the recruits and their partners started to get drowsy. Marello considered letting every stay the night, but as he started to prepare places for everyone, Tasha told him it'd be best if they slept in their own beds. Marello sighed knowing Tasha was right, so he called the boys together. However as they got together, Marello smiled to himself seeing that it was nearly midnight and the boys were barely on their feet. So Marello called on the partner of each rider and asked them to place them on their back. The dragons complied easily as they used their tails as hands and lifted their riders onto their backs.

Marello led the group of young, tired riders back to their dorms, but did not take them through the entryway. He guided the dragons around the building and walked to end of a row. The young rider quickly summoned his partner and told the young dragons and riders to follow him. In a matter of moments the group of five was hovering in the air about three stories off the ground. Marello took one of the keys for one room and showed them that this was the way that their dragon had to enter the room. He took the key and placed it in a hidden slot next to the window. The large window soon divided and allowed enough room for a dragon to fly in quite easily.

The young trainer then called out to Michael and told him that his would be his room. Then he flew to the next window and opened it. The room had two full sized beds so Allen and Cooper knew that this was their room and flew inside.

Lastly Marello opened up Kevin and Ben's room. Ben, who was still quite tired, looked into the dorm room and saw that it was the size of a slightly average apartment. It was separated into a living area, a kitchenette, with a working stove, along with a door that Ben believed lead to his bedroom. Even with well rounded décor, the thing that caught Ben's attention the most was a large machine that sat off to the side of the living area. Marello followed Ben's gaze and sighed as he forgot to tell the boy about the devise.

"Sorry Ben I forgot to tell you. The devise you see in the corner is a sleeping chamber for you dragon. The chamber scans a dragon and creates an artificial climate that the dragon will feel most comfortable in so he or she may sleep in relative ease," Marello said from his partners back. However Marello thought the devise may be useless with Kevin sense there weren't enough black dragons in history for the machine to actually find out a climate that the black dragons would enjoy.

With his task complete, Marello wished Ben and Kevin a good night and muttered about having to clean up his apartment and getting ready for tomorrow night.

Ben waved tiredly from Kevin's back and asked Kevin to fly into the room. Kevin quickly glided into the room and landed next to the couch. He gently laid Ben onto the couch and transformed into his other self. His change was swift and effortless, and as he looked down at Ben, he smiled at him. Ben lay on the couch coming in and out of consciousness. Kevin then knelt beside the couch and looked into Ben's sleepy eyes.

"Hey Ben, want me to carry you into the bedroom," Kevin asked innocently. The answer he received was something the raven haired prince could easily come to like. Ben nodded his head yes and reached out to him like a needy infant wanting to be picked up. Kevin gave him a large smile and scooped Ben into his arms. He then proceeded to carry Ben bridal-style towards the bedroom. Once inside the large sleeping room, Kevin looked around and notice a king size bed in the middle of the room. It had a black comforter, and when he pulled it back, there were dark red sheets.

As the colors seemed to please the dragon prince, he soon laid Ben into the bed. He then proceeded to tuck Ben in. In the time that he tucked, Kevin had considered jumping into the bed with him. He continued his debate for a minute or two, but concluded that sleeping with Ben would help him sleep better. So with relative ease, he slipped under the sheets and scouted closer to the young hero. After pressing a kiss to his cheek, Kevin pulled the young boy closer to his body and wrapped his arms around the younger teen's waist. With s smile spreading across his face Kevin drifted into the realm of dreams.

As the night wore on, morning came in a brief moment to those who fell asleep. In Ben and Kevin's room, the two teens were sleeping contently wrapped in each other's arms. However that soon came to an abrupt end when a loud knock came to their room door. Ben was the first to wake up, but still dazed by sleep, he told the person to enter.

Marello walked into the room only to see Ben lying under Kevin in his human form. Marello gave the two a skeptic look, but decided to ignore their actions for now. Clearing his throat, Ben looked up at Marello and instantly fell out of bed. At the sound of the crash, Kevin stirred from his sleep and looked over at Marello as well. He then let out an unmanly yelp and gave the instructor a nervous smile.

"Mornin' sir, uh, how you doin," Kevin asked. Marello smiled at them replied, "I'm good Kevin, now let's get up and get dressed. Your classes start at 8 this morning, and I forgot to tell you all last night so I decided to wake everyone up and make sure they got to class on time. Today Tasha and I will be letting you all eat in class, but we won't allow it unless its lunch time. Now with that said get dressed and meet me in the lobby area within the next twenty minutes. Oh, and Kevin, I got say I love your sexy human form." Marello winked at the now blushing dragon prince and walked towards the lobby.

Ben had been standing in the doorway of the bathroom listening to Marello and Kevin, and knew that the young man was going to tease him mercilessly today. With a mental groan, he walked into the bathroom and took a quick shower. Luckily the shower only took ten minutes and the young teen was able to grab an outfit from his closet. After that he brushed his teeth, but when he went back into the bedroom, he noticed Kevin wasn't there. Ben then opened his mental link with Kevin and called out to him. '_Kev? Where are you,' _Ben called.

'_I'm outside of the dorm. I knew you were getting dressed so I went ahead, so we wouldn't end up back in bed,'_ was Kevin's reply, to which Ben greatly appreciated. So once he knew what was going on, Ben ran down stairs to see Marello sitting on one of the plush couches in the lobby with his looking glass in his hand. Ben noticed there was a shy, but warm smile on the man's features, which he couldn't figure out. He stealth fully snuck up behind the instructor, and took a look at what Marello was so focused on.

"Ben, if you really that curious I'll happily show you my looking glass," Marello stated in a slightly amused tone. Ben jumped back and gave a nervous laugh. He walked over the other side of the couch, when Marello tossed him his looking glass. In the magical tool, was the picture and a muscular built young man. He was very handsome with slim trimmed eye brows, hazel green eyes, high and well defined cheekbones, thick slick black hair, and a lightly tanned complexion. Overall the guy was sexy as fuck and Ben could do nothing but stare.

"Yeh, he's cute isn't he? His names David, or papito to me. He's undergoing training under a master sorcerer to gain the title of the Anodites," Marello said with a longing expression crossing his features. Soon Marello shook his head and stood up and took back his looking glass. It was a moment later when the others came into the lobby ready to go.

Marello told them to follow quickly or they'd all be in trouble. No one really could make sense of Marello this early in the morning, so they and the dragons, who were waiting outside for them, followed Marello back to the older portion of the academy's grounds until they were walking into the old castle.

As they walked through halls, Marello lead them into a large open room. The room was once used for entertaining large numbers of guests from the style and sheer size of the room. However towards the back portion of the room were four tables set up. On those tables was silver buffet style serving containers, with steaming hot food waiting to be devoured.

The four human teens stared at the food and started feeling their hunger kick in. As the scent filled the room, even the dragons began to feel their stomachs growl. With a smile, Marello told them to grab a plate and get whatever they wanted. While Ben and the others started grabbing plates and grabbed as much food as they could, Kevin and the other dragons were starting to feel left out, until they heard some whistle towards them. When they turned to look to their left, they noticed Arc was standing in a nearby entryway motioning them to follow him. As each dragon looked to the other, Van started towards Arc. After that the others followed after him and were pleasantly surprised to that they were lead just outside the castle.

"Hey guys, I knew you all loved to eat your preferred foods outside. And that way we don't have to watch your owner lose their breakfast," Tasha said as she pulled two large dollies with different types of meat on them. "For Flare, I cooked up some charred elfin deer. Ship your dish was a lil harder to cook, you've got the simmered centaur meat with a few broken up computer bits for some flavor. Van, I know your kind don't feed like the other dragons, but I was able to make the best synthetic dragon energy shake I could. Lastly for Kevin I figured you'd might like charred leviathan chunks and charred white tiger meat. Well eat up boys, today your riders are going to start tapping into your powers so we figured we'd get you as much extra energy we could muster into you guys," Tasha said as she placed each dish in front of their respective lover.

Too much joy, each dragon started wagging their tails and dug into their meal with just as much gusto as their owners. Tasha smiled at them and told them that if they wanted more to just tap on the window. She then walked into the castle and started to help Marello set up mats and other objects to help make their training as safe as possible.

It was another half hour before the trainees finished eating and started heading back to the room where Marello told them where they'd be starting they're next class.

When they walked into the room, they all stared at Marello who was stripped down to a pair of elastic like shorts and a white sleeveless shirt. Marello's once flowing dreads were pulled to the back of his head and held there with a rubber band. The smile that they all became so used to on Marello's face was replaced with a firm and slightly angered expression. He stood in the middle of large area covered in blue matting with his arms folded over his chest.

"You're late; I asked you all to be here at 830 hour and your fifteen minutes late. For that you will be running laps around this room. I'll tell you how many at the end of the day. Now hurry onto the mats and stay still while I get you all changed," Marello said in a strong and hardened voice. The four teens and their dragons knew it was Marello's voice, but to have such a hard edge to it was foreign to them.

Not wanting to find out what Marello would do if they really angered him; they ran onto the mats and stood up straight while Marello summoned some of his powers over magic. Pointing one hand at them, Marello cast a spell that turned into hundreds of dots of light the swirled around each student and changed their normal clothes into something similar to what Marello was wearing.

"Alright now that you'll are dressed, the first thing I will be teaching you is how to fight like a dragon. Oh, and before any of you say that you all already know how to fight like a dragon, you're wrong. The dragon martial arts is a hand-to-hand combat style themed from the dragons. What I, and your dragons are going to teach you is how to fight, as in breathing fire, using your dragons unique powers, and finally merging a piece of your dragon's soul into your body. This will take at least four months to do, while you will be learning combative from me, and in the afternoon you will be learning how to ride your dragons from Tasha. Now the first thing we have to do is permanently forge a union between you and you dragon." As Marello took a small pause, the four students looked to one another as if the man in front of them had just lost his mind.

"And before you start to question my sanity, the link you and your dragons created yesterday was just foundation of what we're going to start on today. We're going to be creating your Dragianium summoner today. Now did you all bring an item of personal importance," Marello asked as he glanced around the room.

Everyone pulled out an item except, but after a moment, he pulled out the necklace his parents gave to him. Marello nodded his head and told each dragon to pull off one of their scales to create the summoner. Then he told the dragons and riders to face one another and lay their foreheads together. Once that was done, Marello instructed them to close their eyes and open the connection they created yesterday. This took each rider a few moments to do, and while they opened the link, Marello walked over to each pair and draw a diamond inside a circle and placed the scale and personal item inside of the magical seal.

As the links opened completely, Marello closed his eyes and began to chant.

_**Pectus pectoris quod mens iam publicus thy. A prodigium of vestri animus iam belongs volo. Per is item , EGO iam tribuo. Permissum nostrum verus vox iam verum suscipio vivo.**_

The scales and personal items soon began to glow with and unearth aura rose between their owners. They began to orbit each other and spin at a slow pace. However as Marello chanted the spell time after time, they began to spin faster and faster. Soon it was almost impossible to see either item as the unearthly auras merged into the other. When it finished, a new item sat between each rider and dragon. The first was the Dragianium summoner, the tool in which allowed a rider to call his or her dragon, and for those who studied the ancient arts, to unlock the hidden powers of the dragon. The second item was known as the Dragianium caller. This device is used in the same way as a Dragianium summoner, but was only used in extreme emergencies. While dragons can travel through the portal that allows them to come to their rider, humans are not as resistant to such high levels of magic.

When Marello gave them the okay to open their eyes, everyone was surprised at the item that lay before them.

Alan and Flare were left with a ring and a small dragon sized earring. The ring was gold and in its face was a red gem, with the symbol of the Plumbers engraved on it. On the earring was the crest of the _Volo Incendia_ dragon inside of a blood ruby. Alan smiled as he picked the ring up. The ring was still warm from the sudden creation, and as he picked up the earring, it started to glow and flew to Flare. Quickly it set itself into Flare's ear, to which the dragon flinched only a bit. Alan then put his ring on and smiled at it as he felt a new rush of power come from it.

A moment late Cooper picked up his summoner, and his dragons caller. Each was made silver bracelets engraved with ancient dragon symbols, for power and protection. Cooper looked at each of them and took the larger one and placed it on Ship's front right leg. He then mimicked the wear of the bracelet and placed it on his right wrist. He smiled as he felt Ship's presences with bracelet. He then turned the look at Alan, who blushed at the gorgeous smiled turned his way.

Next Michael picked up his summoner and Van caller and looked at them extensively. Michael's summoner was a gold necklace with an emerald Plumbers emblem hanging from it. The caller for Van was the same as his riders, but a larger scale. Michael shook his head and sighed in a discontented way, when he was truly happy to have someone to have a connection with.

Last but not least was Ben. His summoner was different from the others by the most. The summoner was a green colored armguard. On top of it had a green and black Plumber's emblem that seemed to be a top for a hidden compartment. Kevin's caller was something he could truly come to love. It was an acid green arm band that would wrap around his arm. Kevin smiled at Ben and gave him a loving lick. Ben blushed at the action and never noticed the smile that crept onto Marello's face.

"Alright boys, now that you're truly connected to your partner, I'm going to start teaching you the secrets of the ancients. Your first class will be learning to breathe fire, or in my case ice," the young instructor said as he reverted to his normal personality.

Alan however raised his hand in question at his cousin's sanity. "Ah, I thought we were going to learning hand-to-hand combat? And how are we gonna breathe fire?"

Marello gave them a huge grin as he started to explain the basics of fire breathing. "It's simple, by taking small portions of your dragon's energy, and adding it to your own, you can create flames inside your lungs. Then it's as simple breathing hard from your mouth. Now to draw power from your dragon, you're going to have to use your summoner. Focus your thoughts on the summoner and you should feel a huge source of power from it. That power is your dragons, and you only need to pull a small amount at it at first. Taking too much power from your dragon is stealing all your dragons' strength. Now for training purposes go ahead and take a bit of it."

When everyone took a small portion of their dragon's power, the felt the energy meld with their own and felt instantly more powerful than before.

What they didn't see was their aura escaping their bodies. This aura is a side-effect of a human ingesting the power of a dragon, and normally is the color of the dragon they have.

"Now that you've got this power, take a deep breath. Let the energy flow into your lungs along with your natural breath," Marello instructed watching each student very closely. "With that breath you should feel your new power circling inside of your lungs; well the next to last step is to give your dragons breath a good spark. Think of something of someone who truly pissed you off and breathe out as hard as you can." As Marello finished his explanation, he jumped back and let everyone try it out.

Once Marello had cleared fire breathing range, each student released powerful flames from their mouths. As they ran out of air to fuel their flame, the dragon fire vanished, and left four humans stunned at the feat they had just performed.

_TBC…._

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**Okay I know I've made you all wait a really long time for this and I'm sorry. My muses are fickle and they didn't want to co-operate. So this is what I've got and I hope you all like it. I will do my best to get the next chapter up as quickly as possible. TTFN…**


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or any of its other incarnations.

**I would now like to thank g1rldraco7, Mantineus, and ArcAngelCrystal for being the first three to review my last chapter. Their reviews got me to start this chapter the same day I posted the last one and so you all may get a better chance at reading another chapter sooner. Well now that basic is over, it's time for the real fun to start. **

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**Curious Dragons**

_Chapter 11_

After nearly ten long months of grueling training with Marello and Tasha cracking the whips into the sides of each trainee, it was time for graduation and everyone seemed to be in a world of their own. Ben was dreaming of finally getting away from the never ending teasing he received from Marello. Even if everyone knew Marello was gay and had even brought his lover to see them train and give them a few pointers, the instructor would always seemed to tease Ben or any of the others if he found them in unfavorable circumstances.

The most hilarious was when Marello walked in on Cooper and Alan getting ready to _exercise_ before bed. Marello ended blushing more than Alan and Cooper, but soon told the happy couple he didn't mind if they had fun, but to make sure not to overdue anything.

While Marello and Tasha trained the human recruits Arc and Xylene drilled the dragons into the ground with exercises and pushing their newly developed bonds with their riders to their tests. While dragons normally communicate through telepathy, Arc and Xylene made the dragons learn how to use their rider's energy just as the rider was using theirs. The training on both sides was tough, but it helped both rider and dragon build on their energy reserve, and how to handle themselves when they were pushed to their limits.

Kevin for the most part was feeling stronger than ever before. The training had positive results on Kevin's human form as he gained more and more muscle, which gave Ben a lot more boyfriend to look at in the shower every night.

When it came time for graduation, all the students were asked to perform a small demonstration of what they learned, and everyone was excited about showing off their new talents.

On the day of graduation, the Academy canceled all classes so students could see the first class of Ancient Dragon Riders walk across stage for the first time in over 254 years. They ceremony was to be held in front of the old capital of Paragon. With the ancient castle sitting in the background, a stage was set up with black and green balloons, bows, and streamers everywhere. Seats had been placed out in front of the stage, and an area was even setup for dragons to watch the ceremony. Marello and Tasha worked endlessly to make sure everything was done correctly and even did a little bit of last minute work.

As noon grew closer, nearly 150 people, and dragons had shown up for the ceremony, including the members of the Dragon Riders Council. Once it was noon, music started to play, and announced the start of the graduation, but the arrival of King Validus. The human portion of the audience stood and watched as their king arrived and sat in a special throne set up in the middle of the crowd. Surprisingly, this time accompanying him was his daughter Elena.

Under normal circumstances, Elena never allowed herself to be seen in the public eye alongside her father. However seeing as she had been just been named the successor to the throne, she decided to attend the graduation.

After the king and princess of Paragon were seated, the ceremony began with the head of the Council addressing the public.

Wes Green walked up to the podium and smiled out to at the crowd. "Greetings to the friends and family of the graduates, which are gathered here today, I would like to welcome you to the graduation of our first class of students who were instructed in the old ways of Dragon riding. They were under the instruction of the young members of the dragon rider's council and from what I've seen during the final examination, these young men as well as their partners are ready for what is to come. Now before we begin with the graduation ceremony, each student will demonstrate what they've learned in the last ten months."

The older council took his seat back towards the center of the stage as Alan walked up the side steps and onto the stage. As the youngest of the graduates looked out into the he became slightly nervous. However his nerves calmed when he found the familiar and calming face of his mother. Alan smiled towards her and took a deep breath. As he let his breath go, he put a stern face on and let some of his natural energy flow into his ring. It took a few seconds for the ring to react to the energy Alan produces, and from the ring burst a dark red flame.

Alan let the flame engulf his hand and watched as the crowd gasped at the type of summoning he had. He balled his hand into a fist and punched the ground as hard as he could. The mystic flames that engulfed his hand then leapt from his hands to the ground and race around him to create a large mystic circle. Before anyone could say or do anything about the mystic flames, a huge fireball came barreling out from behind Alan and arched towards the attendees of the graduation. Many of the human guests started to panic, but once the fireball arched a bit further, it landed safely and far away from the crowd. After waiting a moment, Alan jumped high into the air and started to twirl in the air. As he dove towards the flaming mass of power, the flames diminished and revealed Flare in all his glory. It took Alan less than a few seconds to land on his partners back and took a bow for the audience. Flare followed his rider's example and took a bow as well. Everyone in the crowd cheered for the performance, but Alan's mother shed a few tears of happiness and sadness. She now had two sons that would carry on their family's legacy, but she was now losing a baby to a war that she and many other never saw coming.

Once Alan's aerial display finished up, the young man smiled and hopped off his friends back. For a brief moment, he looked into the crowd and smiled once again. Back on stage, Marello stood up from his seat and hopped off stage. He reaches Alan a moment later and waved his hand a bit and made the cordless microphone fly to him.

"Everyone the first of our graduates to display their new gifts was Alan Albright, and his partner Flare. This pair can really turn up the heat once they start letting loose, and I'm very proud to have been able to work with them. Where they go from here is there choice, but one thing is clear, they have a lot of potential and I can't wait to see what they do with it," Marello said as he wrapped his arm around his cousin's shoulder. With a smile Alan and Flare left and sat down just off stage designated for the graduates.

Next up was Cooper, who looked a little nervous. He turned his head towards Alan who gave him a supportive smile. With a bit more confidence, Cooper turned and faced the crowd. He then let his energy flow into the summoner, and watched as it lit up. Soon the symbol of technology appeared the summoner, and once it appeared, Cooper used his power to lift the symbol off this bracelet and let it float above his head. In a matter of seconds, the symbol began to grow and take on a different form. The symbol began to spin and transformed into another mystic circle. Coop quickly raised his right hand used a small amount of this energy to connect with the portal and threw it onto the ground in front of the audience. From the portal shoot a grey and shining silhouette of a dragon. Ship roared as he circled everyone from above and dove down towards his rider. At the speed ship was descending, everyone thought the dragon would hit the ground, but at the last second, he arched his body so he could start ascending. The beautiful flight pattern happened so quickly the audience barely had time to notice it happen.

As the focused on the stage again, Cooper vanished from sight. When Ship roared once more, the noticed Cooper was now on his partners back waving down at everyone. Ship did his diving technique once more, but this time Cooper stood up on his back and activated the summoner. Cooper then took a deep breath and began to breathe fire to create a slim ring of gray flames. Ship increased his speed as he headed for the ring. The dragon tucked its wings in and was able to pass through the ring without injury. However, the dragon still continued his dive.

Most of the spectators knew that Ship's dive was for show, but with a dragon diving at with at nearly 100mph, many began to panic and scattered from their seats. The dragon was nearly on top of the crowd when it opened its wings and arched back into the skies. While most of the crowd sighed in relief, Cooper jumped of his partner's back and waited for the dragon to land. Once he was on land, Ship looked at Cooper and silently asked if it was time. When Cooper nodded Ship, started to prepare himself, to give the audience a show they'd never forget. A few of Ships mechanical components began to whiz, and blow off steam as Ship began to collect himself.

After a few moments, the boi-mech dragon lifted its head him and brought it back down and released a massive torrent of grey flames. The flames from the dragon became so intense many people from the first two rows fled from their seats. While the flames spewed from Ship's mouth, Cooper still perfectly still and watched as the torrent of fire came closer and closer.

Every spectator was screaming for Cooper to get out of the way, but the young man stood his ground and smiled as the flames came within two feet of him. Cooper then let out a large sigh and then took a larger breathe.

The flames that seemed ready to burn him to a cinder soon went flying towards his mouth and was inhaled into Cooper's body. No one in the crowd get believe what they were seeing, a human was inhaling the flames of a dragon as if they were air. Ship, who was by now in need of oxygen let his flame spewing die out as he watched his partner feed off his fire. The technique was announced to the crowd as the Fire Eater. The technique itself is a rare dragon rider gift that no one currently knew how to use. Cooper had had started doing research on many ancient techniques such as this one, and it seemed this one was just up Coopers lane.

As the last of Ship's torrent was sucked into Cooper's belly, everyone noticed the bulge that was created from eating the flaming, but no one dared to say anything about it. Then Cooper sighed in relief and his bulging stomach flattened out again into the washboard abs he developed over the duration of his training. When Cooper went to sit down, he smiled out at the crowd hoping his parents had taken time off from their jobs to come see him.

The last two to showcase their talents were Michael and Ben, whom decided to have a demonstration of the Dragon fighting style then show the crowd their partners. Each fearing the reaction of the audience wouldn't be good, so they decided to work together. When the two came out to perform, Ben saw his lover sitting in the fourth row smiling and give him a slight wave. What really caught Ben's attention, was a very pale young man sitting next to Kevin. His eyes were a light baby blue and he had pale blonde, almost white hair shaping his face in a slightly curly manner. Ben had to admit the boy was very uke, but he knew he had never seen the guy before, so he was curious as to why the young man was sitting next to Kevin, and blushing so hard.

When it came time for Ben and Michael to showcase their talents, they gave the show a true battle. They each used hand-to-hand combat moves as well as mixing short ranged fire attacks. Everyone watched in sheer delight, as the young men battled. It gave many of the children in the crowd dreams of becoming strong dragon riders, and inspired a few older magic users that it may be time that they came out of retirement and defend that lands that they call home.

At the end of the ceremony, everyone was released to their families, but they were told to report to the Dragon Rider Hall the day after next for team assignments and their first mission. Everyone paid close attention to Tasha's words as they came to know her as a strong rider, but also a compassionate woman when she wanted to.

Ben and Kevin decided to skip the family day and just spend some time together in private, which Verdona had no problem with, and easily convinced, without the use of her powers, to just let the boys have a little fun. As she and Max left, she turned and winked towards them and sent them a telepathic message. '_Now you boys go and have some fun I left you with about 4000 drak to blow. Just remember if you're going to something serious, just remember to __wrap__ up.' _Ben blushed at his grandmother's message while Kevin smirked and asked his lover where they were heading first.

When it came time for Ben and the others to report, Ben was on pins and needles as he thought about getting his first mission. However Kevin was there to relax his younger lover, by pulling him into a quick kiss. Before Ben could really get into the kiss, Kevin pulled away and smirked at Ben. "Sorry Benji, but we've gotta work soon, so no fun til it's all done," Kevin teased waving his finger in front of Ben's face. It was then the Ben remembered that Kevin could sometimes be a real asshole.

With everything said and done, Kevin and Ben walked into the meeting room, where the members of the Dragon riders Council met. Once inside the large room, the first thing that Ben noticed was that not all of the Council members were present. The only ones who were there were Tasha and Marello. As the confused expression on Ben's face grew, Marello chuckled behind his hand. It was then that Kevin noticed everyone was there already and that it seemed they were waiting on them to arrive, once again.

The raven haired teen groaned again, but when Tasha looked at them with her blank gaze, they all lined up as they did every morning in basic training. However it was not Tasha who addressed them, Marello did and gave them a very friendly good morning. "Good morning guys, I know today is going to be slightly odd for you, but you all will be getting your first mission as a dragon rider as well as receiving a partner who will be a sorcerer. Yes I know it does so odd that you would have a sorcerer as a partner, but they are good at figuring things out that you cannot. They are also every useful in a fight and your outnumbered. I should know, I'm one of few riders that have the blood of sorcerer and a rider. Anyway, once I introduce you to your partner, you'll receive a scroll that holds on the information you'll need for your mission. These missions were picked up by Tasha and me, since of all the council members we know you the best."

"That's correct now let's get this over with, unfortunately Marello and I have a mission we have to complete as well. So without further ado Alan Albright, step forward. Your partner from now on will be Cooper Daniels. Yeah, yeah I know neither of them is a sorcerer, but we'd probably have an easier time just letting them pair up. Not to mention when we were interviewing possible candidates, they all said they'd have problems with a gay partner. Can you believe how stupid some people are? Anyway, Michael Morningstar, you'll meet your partner outside in the courtyard of this guildhall. Her name is Julie Yamamoto, and don't let her beauty fool you, she's a strong sorceress who has magic that was designed more for combat and healing and such things so have fun. Now as you for Mr. Tennyson, you've got a personal connection to you partner. She'll be waiting for you just outside your grandfather's office. Now get out and here and get to work and none of you better die out there. I don't wanna see the last ten months of training go to waste," Tasha said harsh at first, but more gentle as she finished.

The group of trainees knew by now that Tasha truly did care about them, even if it meant threatening the older members of the council to let them finish training. They were now a part of her extended family and she always sticks up for family. With a smile she sent them away and looked a back at Marello. "Marly, how are we gonna survive this next group of students? We almost lost one of them when they started the flying lessons. How are we gonna protect the next class from something worse," the older woman asked with worry present in her voice.

Marello turned to her and gave a small smile, "It'll be okay trust me. We know better now and will correct that. Besides before we even start our next batch of trainees we've gotta figure out why that bloody dragon just had some many of his troops split off into groups into different regions of Paragon."

Tasha nodded, and took on her normal unreadable face. While most times she seemed fearless, Tasha was a normal person, and expression her truest feeling around those she considered the closet to her heart, one of those being Marello.

Now that Ben and Kevin had direction where to find their new companion, they started roaming the halls until they came to council members offices. When they started down the hallway, Kevin began to gag and scrunched up his face in disapproval. Ben turned to see Kevin's expression and asked what was wrong. To which his lover answer with, "Nothin' jus some chick on this halls got way to much perfume on. Not to mention the crap smells like shit." Ben proceed to slap Kevin arm and told him that was very rude to say. Kevin pouted about it but followed Ben quietly when the brunette turned around and started by towards his grandfather's office.

_TBC…_

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**So how is everyone? I hoped you liked this chapter it was a pain in the arse to write so please don't hate me. The next chapter I'll try put up faster. Well TTFN...**


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: If you've chapter 1 it's still the same.

**Hello of my lovely readers! I know my chapters are taking longer to update, but I'm really starting to losing my touch when it comes to writing. I think it's mostly due to me not finding any inspiration. So after this chapter I'm gonna take a break and see if I can find something that will help me get my inspiration back.**

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_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 12_

Ben and Kevin took their time as they strolled down the hallway to Max's office. As they reached the office door, Ben took hold of the door knob. He was slightly nervous, but when he felt Kevin's hand reach up and touch his shoulder, he sighed and turned the knob.

When he pushed the door open, he was greeted to the sight of his grandfather working hard at his computer. Ben smiled slightly, but then he heard a voice from somewhere within the office telling him to come inside. While Ben was startled by the voice, Kevin pushed Ben into the room, he stumbled and fell. Ben swiftly fell to the floor, but a sudden wind caught him and set him back to his feet. As he looked up, he finally noticed his grandmother sitting in the corner of the office.

She smiled when Ben finally noticed her and got up from her seat and gave her grandson a hug. "Hey there kiddo, your graduation performance was stupendous. I was starting to wonder when Kevin was going to show up, but then I realized bringing him out may cause more problems than it's worth," the elderly sorceress said.

Ben had to agree with his grandmother as he told her and his grandfather that Michael and he had talked about not performing with their dragons as they may start a scene that no one wanted to deal with. After a brief pause, Ben turned to Kevin and asked him something that had started bothering him since the graduation.

"Kevin who was that pale kid sitting next to you? I've never seen him before and he seemed to be blushing a lot," Ben asked as to the identity of the pale-skinned male.

Kevin's raven-colored eyebrow rose at Ben's question, but when the answer popped into his mind, he just shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, it was jus Van. I gave him a few drops of my blood, and due to his vampire-like powers, he was able to turn himself into a human for hours. I gotta admit though I didn't think he'd be so cute if he were human," the older teen stated.

Verdona nodded her head at the explanation, but when she felt two pair of eyes on her, she turned her head, and was met with a curious stare from Ben. "Um, grandma, what are you doing here?" asked her curious grandson. Verdona smiled and answered Ben. "Oh I just dropped by to see if Max wanted to play hooky from work, but he's too focused on his work to even let my words pierce through that thick skull of his." Verdona pouted when she finished explaining herself, which led to Ben chuckling behind his hand at her.

Max then cleared his throat, but never took his eyes off the computer screen. "Verdona you know that I'm busy right now and that I'll be leaving here in about an hour. Anyway, I had to wait for Ben to get here. He, Kevin, and Gwen have a mission today so I have to be here to explain a few things." As if on cue, Gwen appeared in the room from several pink wisps of smoke.

The young sorceress coughed a few times, not being use to this mode of travel, but when she turns to see Ben, she smiled at him. "Hey Ben, so I take it I'm your partner," redhead cheerfully asked. Kevin, who was still behind Ben, gave the girl a disgusted look, and it was at that moment she looked up and noticed him. She frowned at him and asked, "What're you doing here free-loader and what's with that look on your face?"

Kevin held his nose as he replied to Gwen's questions. "I'm here 'cause I'm workin' wit' Ben, and it smells like you bathed in that stuff you call perfume."

Verdona had by now walked behind Max's desk, but couldn't help but chuckle at Kevin's comment about Gwen's perfume. Even though sometimes Gwen did put too much perfume on, now was not one of those moments. Kevin's senses were still heighted in his human form, which made a small amount of strong perfume just as bad as if she bathed in it. Gwen blushed and glared at Kevin. "Why you, ass! I didn't bathe in my perfume. Maybe you should get your sense of smell checked."

As the two began to trade off insults, Max soon began to get tired of the two and told them to stop. When Max raised his voice, both teens became quiet, while Verdona and Ben smirked. "Listen Gwen, and Kevin, I'm not sure why you two can't seem to get along but you're going to have to put your personal feelings aside and work together as a team. Here is the holo-cube with all the information on your mission. You will be leaving in the morning to reach the area you are to investigate," Max scolded. From his desk, Max pulled out a silver-colored cube, with the Plumbers symbol on top of it.

He tossed the cube to Ben and told him to push the symbol. The strange cube began to heat up, which lead to Ben dropping the cube onto the ground. As the cube hit the floor, the symbol of the Plumbers began to glow. It was a moment later when a bright beam of light shot out from the symbol on the cube. Everyone in the room shielded their eyes due to the blinding light. Once the light started to die down, Ben and Kevin were slightly slack-jawed at the appearance of Marello wearing his infamous pair of semi-rimmed, black frame glasses.

Normally, Ben and Kevin wouldn't be nervous about seeing the normally happy-go-lucky instructor, but when Marello had those glasses on, the perky young man was as cold as a business man. His demeanor would change and when he spoke, it showed anyone who would doubt him how and why he was placed on the Dragon Rider Council.

With a stoic look on his face, Marello greeted everyone in a calm and smooth voice. "Good morning Ben, Gwen, Kevin, Max, and any others that I am unable to identify. What you are seeing, this is mostly for Ben and Kevin, is nothing more than a holo-gram I designed to relay missions to my subordinates."

Instantly Ben and Kevin sighed in relief, but without missing a beat, Marello's holo-gram gave them a stern glare. "However, this does not mean you can slouch or act like a moron during this briefing. Now stand on attention all of you!" Marello's words had the same effect on the three teens as if he were standing in front of them. Even Max had to admit he also jumped out of his seat.

Once it seemed the holo-gram was satisfied, he continued speaking to them in his calm smooth tone. "Alright now listen carefully, you three have been assigned to the 2/151st Intel Recovery Unit, commanded by none other than myself. And before you start Ben, yes I'm your boss and that you haven't seen the last of me." It seemed Marello truly knew his students as Ben had started to say something but shut his mouth. Gwen started to snicker, but she noticed the holo-grams facial expression wasn't a happy one. "And to you Ms. Tennyson, I'd suggest you quit with the snickering. That goes double for you Levin."

Everyone in the room was getting really creeped out by how well Marello was at judging what their response was, but nonetheless the holo-gram Marello continued. "Anyway, your first assignment will be a rather simple task and shouldn't keep you away from home no more than a day or two. We have received information that several of Aggregor's forces have split into small teams and have been deployed throughout Paragon. It seems that they are both looking for something, and are keeping a low profile, or that Aggregor is recruiting again. Your mission is to tail a small group of Aggregor's men and learn as much about what Aggregor's up to. If you have a chance to attack them and restrain them, then do so. I have left with Max your official Plumber's badges. These devices double as homing beacons, communicators, and a variety of other features. Your mission will be to start in the town of Smallville. This is the most up to date location of the enemy. You will have been provided a 5000 Drak allowance for food and shelter, _and nothing else_. I wish you luck on your mission and you better not fuck this up."

The cube soon lost its glow and turned back to its normal pale-ish silver color. Once it was clear that Marello was gone for now, Ben turned to his grandfather and asked, "Okay how did Marello go from instructor to commander of an entire unit?" Max chuckled behind his hand and explained everything to Ben and the others. "Ben, Marello has been the commander of Intel recovery team for the past 2 years. He and Tasha had a great deal of potential, and Marello's shined when it came to gathering Intel. Tasha's skills were best when it came to operations that called for secrecy, deception, and getting in and out of tight situations, that's why she was placed in charge of 2/149th Black Ops. They only became council members about a year ago due to their talent, and have been a great help in gathering as much intelligence on Aggregor and his forces. I didn't tell you this before, but this war that's about to start has been going on for the last three years. We just never had enough information to figure out who was behind it. Now that we know, everyone is working around the clock to try and figure out what Aggregor is after."

When Max finished, he gave them a credit card with their traveling allowance, and told them it would be best if they started out on their mission in the morning. The three teens agreed with Max and went outside to gather a few tools and pieces of equipment they may need. However as they got back to the Tennyson household, Gwen asked a question that was bothering her for a while. "Ben, why is Kevin following us around, and for that matter, where's your dragon? I thought I'd have seen him by now." Kevin smirked at the female teen and looked down at her. "Simple _toots_, the reason why I'm followin' Ben around is 'cuz I'm his partner."

Gwen gave Kevin skeptic glance, and Kevin smirk only grew. "Let me put this in a way you'll understand. I'm Ben's partner, his dragon, _retard_," the dragon prince replied. Gwen's jaw dropped for a sec and a moment later she started sputtering about how it was impossible for a dragon to be human. However a moment later, she remembered Ben mentioning his encounter with a black dragon almost a year ago. It took a few moments for Gwen to get over her mental freak out, and once she was done, she placed her bags on the ground and lit her hands up with mana. Using Kevin's confusion to her advantage, she manipulated the mana around her to create a whip and sent it to capture Kevin. Holding onto him tight, she brought him closer to her and then flipped him upside down.

Ben stared in horror and told Gwen to let Kevin go, but the young sorceress ignored her cousin. She glared at the defenseless dragon and spoke to him calmly but never letting go of the undertone of pain if her words were not adhered to. "Kevin, I may not like you, but you make Ben happy so that gets you off the hook with me, but I promise you if you hurt Ben in any way, not even the bosom of _death_ will keep you safe from me." When she finished, the lasso of mana vanished and Kevin fell to the ground. He groaned as he sat up.

'_What the hell is it wit' the women in this family threatenin' me?_' Kevin mentally screamed. However as he started to rub his head, Ben got over to him and started fussing over him and making sure he was alright. When he was sure Kevin was alright he started to yell at Gwen for attack Kevin. The young sorceress seemed disinterested in Ben's words, and merely walked into the house and prepared for the next day. Ben then came back over to Kevin and helped him get back on his feet. Kevin gave Ben a soft smile and his gratitude for the help.

Once everyone was back inside, Ben started cooking dinner while Kevin started packing their bags. After an hour or so, he was done packing all of his and Ben's things. He placed the two duffle bags by the door of Ben's room. Kevin then felt the urge to stretch, and did as his body told him. However, he soon felt a dull throb of pain shoot through his rib. He winced in pain and pulled his shirt up and noticed a bruise had formed where Gwen had tightened her hold on him. He growled silently to himself, remembering that he was vulnerable to magic in this form, but he also remembered that it was in this form that he will be able to stay by Ben without people giving him looks of utter disgust. So with a smile he accepted his bruises and went downstairs to see if Ben needed any help.

After dinner, the Tennyson family decided to call it an early night, but Kevin stayed up wondering how things were going to go from then on. He knew that with him being a dragon, his life with Ben would be hard, but as he thought more about it, he saw how things would be more difficult. He was next in line for the throne, and it was his duty to take up the mantle of leadership and lead the dragons into the next era of history. However, with his duty came giving up Ben, for one of the rules of the dragon palace was to never allow humans to set foot on that sacred ground. The more Kevin thought about this, the more depressed he became.

As the thoughts of living without Ben began to swarm in Kevin's mind, the image of the brunet's smiling face created a swirl of wind that forced all his negative thoughts away. As new thoughts of a wonderful life with Ben swept into his mind, Kevin started to drift off to sleep.

When the sun rose the next morning, he awoke to the feeling of something heavy lying on his chest. Opening his eyes, he was slightly startled to see Ben resting his head on him. A warm and loving smile grew on the dragon's face; with the greatest of ease, he pulled Ben closer to him and held him.

It was another half hour before Ben woke and noticed he wasn't in his own bed. He turned and looked up to see Kevin's face smiling at him. "Morning beautiful," Kevin said, as he stroked Ben's hair. Ben blushed and repeated the greeting. Kevin smirked at Ben's coyness and asked, "So what got you out of your bed last night and into mine?"

The blush on Ben's face somehow got darker, but nonetheless he answered his lover. "Well, it was cold in my room last night and I remembered how warm you were on cold nights back at the dorms. So I guess my body sought you out by instinct." Ben then snuggled closer to Kevin and tried to go back to sleep but before Ben could drift back into the land of dreams, a knock came from Kevin's door. Ben quickly shot up from his resting position, and looked nervously at the door. Kevin, however, glared at the door. He was happy with Ben tucked so close under him.

"Kevin, have you seen Ben? I went by his room a few minutes ago and he's not in there," said a slightly worried Gwen. Ben got out of bed and went to answer the door. He smiled at his cousin and said, "Morning Gwen, I woke up early and decided to bother Kevin. Sorry if I worried you." Gwen seemed to believe Ben's half truth and told him that they needed to get dressed.

As Gwen turned to leave, she turned back and looked at Kevin. "Oh and Kevin, some guy named Cooper called and said he'd be coming by to drop off the car around 10. Anyway, it's about 9, so you two may want to get dressed and get ready to go. It's gonna take us at least four hours to get to Smallville, so the sooner we start, the sooner we can get to work." Gwen left after giving Ben and Kevin her thoughts and the two lovers had to agree with her. So reluctantly, they got dressed and went downstairs with their bags packed.

They took their bags to the front porch to wait for Cooper, but were shocked to see that Gwen was already there and had only one bag, while they each brought two bags. Gwen smirked at them knowing full well that she was carry four bags in all, but with a little bit of magic it only looked as if she was carrying one bag. As ten o'clock approached, Max came outside and told them good luck and to be aware of their surroundings.

It was just after Max left for work that Ben, Gwen, and Kevin heard the roar of a powerful engine coming towards them. Kevin got more and more excited as the sound got closer, much to Gwen and Ben confusion, but when they saw the car Cooper was driving they understood why the raven was excited. As the car came to a stop, Ben and Gwen stared at a sleek, 76' Camero, which was painted toxic green and had two black racing stripes on it. It was obvious that the car had gone through a major overhaul as the car looked like any of the newer model cars. Ben smiled at their ride while Gwen was slightly suspicious of the car. She knew there had to be something wrong with the car, seeing that Kevin really didn't have the Drak to buy such a nice car, but so she asked, "So Kevin, who did you get the money from for the car?"

Kevin stopped smiling for a moment and glared at her for thinking he may have stolen the car. "Well if it's any of your business, when my dad found out I was gonna be Ben's partner, he started givin' me an allowance. After a month into training, I found out that Cooper was into cars. Havin' no understandin' of them I asked him to show me a few things. After a week I was a car lover. I proposed that we find an old one and fix her up. Cooper jumped at the idea."

By this time Cooper was pulling in front of the house and smiled to see everyone waiting for him. He waved at his friends and called out to them. Kevin literally jumped off the porch and sped walked over to Cooper and asked him for the keys. Cooper laughed at Kevin's eagerness, but nonetheless turned over the keys to him and told them Allen would be here in a moment to pick him up, if they wanted to go ahead and head out. Ben nodded his head and agreed with Cooper. He grabbed his bags and headed towards the car.

After a few minutes of packing, Ben quickly called shotgun to ride up front. Gwen rolled her eyes at Ben's childish antics, and knowing very well that Kevin would never let her sit up front with him. The sorceress walked to the car, and climbed into the backseat and realized it was quite roomy. She sat down and smiled as Kevin climbed into the driver's seat, and Ben sat in the passenger seat.

"Alright boys and girls buckle up tight, 'cuz we're gonna be getting' to Smallville in under an hour," Kevin said as he gunned the engine. The car soon began to levitate off the ground and the wheels of the car soon tucked themselves into the underside of the car. As the car told Kevin it was ready to take off, Kevin grinned as he hit the gas and took down the road, with Gwen and Ben screaming along the way.

_TBC..._

**If anyone has suggestions let me know and I'll see what I can do ok! WellTTFN…**


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its incarnations.

**Hey everyone  
**

* * *

_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 13_

Upon reaching Smallville, in the timeframe Kevin set, the larger male received a punch to the face from a sickly looking Ben. "Kevin! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you have a death wish or something," Ben yelled as he steadied himself, as another wave of nausea swept over him. Fighting back his nausea, Ben glared at Kevin, while said teen just rubbed his jaw.

"Ben, not to be mean or nothin, but you should really start working out," Kevin said evenly. While Ben glared at his lover, Gwen stumbled out of the car and fired a mana bolt at Kevin's rear. The raven growled in pain after the bolt exploded, and quickly turned too glared at the redhead. Still slightly off balance, Gwen gave Kevin a weak glare and said, "I agree with Ben on this one. Kevin you made love moving that fast, but not everyone's willing to go over 100 mph.

Kevin just huffed and told the cousins they were just being whimps. Ben balled his fist again ready to break his lovers pretty face, but turned around and said, "Look let's get a room before it gets any later. I wanna rest up before we start this investigation."

Silently agreeing, Gwen and Kevin grabbed their bags and started looking for a hotel.

It nearly an hour to find a hotel and by then everyone was getting tired. When they finally found one, everyone nearly ran inside. Once they made it to the front counter, they were greeted by a young man with almond colored eyes and raven colored hair. "Good afternoon, and welcome to Kyuren Hotel. My name's Alex Lockhart, how can I be of assistance to you?"

Ben smiled at Alex and responded, "Hi, my names Ben Tennyson, and I'd like to get _three_ single rooms." Alex nodded his head and began checking their hotel's system for vacant rooms and smiled as he found some.

"Well Mr. Tennyson we have three rooms for you, and they are available for week, and if you wish to extent your stay just let me know ok," Alex said as he printed out paper work for everyone to sign.

When they done signing everything, Kevin looked at Ben and asked who the third room was for. Ben smirked as he told his dragon lover that it was for him. His punishment would to survive a week without Ben to snuggle up to at night. Kevin stopped in his tracks, with his jaw dropped. "That's not fair Benji! All I did was drive us here faster than what was allowed," Kevin ranted like a spoiled child. Ben only rolled his eyes and continued to his room.

While Kevin pouted, a boy about 8 years old came into the hallway, room one of the empty rooms. He looked at Kevin and walked up to him. "Hi mister, are you lost," the boy asked innocently. Surprised by the soft voice, Kevin turned and gave the small boy a confused look. Smiling the little boy walked over to him and said, "If your lost let me help you mister!" Quickly taking Kevin key card, the little boy glanced at his room number and told Kevin to follow before running off down the hall.

Kevin called after the kid to slow down, but the little one paid him no attention. After a moment or so, Kevin finally caught up with the kid and saw him standing in front of his room. Still smiling the little boy said, "Here you go room 425! If you need anything please call the front desk. My brother will be happy to get it, oh and my names Isaiah." Isaiah handed Kevin back his key card and took off down the hallway and vanished around another corner. Kevin smirked and shook his head at the boundless energy the kid had. With a sigh the raven haired dragon entered his room and noticed the rooms were fitting royalty.

The room was decorated in red and black with a splash of gold here and there. Walking further into the room, Kevin was a king sized bed lined with a black comforter with a golden dragon stitched into it. The beauty of the room was greatly appreciated by Kevin as he lay on the extremely comfortable bed.

Before he knew it, Kevin was taking his shoes off and getting cozy in bed. While he was still upset that Ben wasn't sharing a room with him, he still could smile and relax enough to drift off to sleep.

Two hour passed by swiftly for the sleeping raven, but was soon awoken by someone beating on his door. Groaning, Kevin lifted himself out of bed and walked over to the door. Nearly ripping the door off its hinge, Kevin glared at nothing but air. The raven haired prince was now pissed off that someone woke him for no reason and was about to slam the door shut, until he heard a voice call to him. Looking down, there stood Isaiah looking at him nervously.

"Sorry to wake you Mr. Kevin, but your friend, Mr. Ben told me to come by and make sure you were awake. He says that he wants to check out the town," the youngling said shyly. Kevin sighed and slipped his shoes back on and asked if the kid wanted to ride on his shoulder. Isaiah smiled and told he'd love to. Kevin swiftly picked the boy up and placed him on his shoulders and told him to hold on tight. Isaiah did as he was told and let an excited squeal as Kevin took off running down the hall.

Meanwhile in the lobby, Ben and Gwen waited for their driver to arrive, but poised themselves for attack as they heard a scream coming from behind them. When they saw it was Kevin with a kid on his shoulders, they both looked as if they had seen a pretty pink pony holding up a convenience store. As the pair made it into the lobby area, Kevin plucked the kid from his shoulders and told him he had to go. The 8 year-old looked too adorable to say no to so he walked over to Ben and Gwen.

"Hey would you guys mind if Isaiah tags along for a lil bit? Besides we need someone to show us around and the kid certainly knows a lot about the place," Kevin pleaded. Ben was slightly jealous that the kid was able to break his tough guy boyfriend down so quickly, but agreed to let the kid come along. Kevin smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He then went over and told Isaiah he could come as long as he got the okay from his brother.

Isaiah ran off quickly was back shortly telling them that his brother had no problems with him going out. However Isaiah never told them that he told his brother he was going to play with some friends. Kevin took the boys hand and started walking to the exit. Ben bristled at the sight, but started feeling stupid since Kevin was holding the hand of an 8 year-old. Gwen started to giggle and Ben's jealously and told him that they should hurry up and catch up.

AS they started out, Ben looked at the boy and asked, "So Isaiah, how do you know where the bad part of your village is?"

Isaiah looked back at Ben, since he was still holding Kevin's hand and replied, "Cus it's the only side of town my brother tells me to stay away from." Ben had no retort after the innocent look Isaiah gave him; while Kevin smirked knowing Ben couldn't see it.

"So you're just going to take us, even though you may get in trouble if your brother finds out," Gwen asked.

The little boys skin slightly blushed as he turned his head back around. "O-only cus Mr. Kevin asked me."

Gwen's interest sparked at this and continued her questioning, "So if Ben or I had asked you would you have shown us?"

"No," was the boy's blunt reply.

Ben however frowned even more knowing that the kid liked Kevin. However Kevin was soaking the attention up. Isaiah was really a sweet kid and he seemed helpful, so what reason did he have not to like the kid.

After walking down an alleyway, everyone noticed how the shops started looking more crooked and how many of the people of the area glared at them. The place where Isaiah brought them to was definitely what they were looking for. Now they just need to find the shadiest bar around. Isaiah looked around a bit until he saw a certain bar. He smiled and let go of Kevin's hand, then broke out into a sprint for the bar. Seeing him run off, Kevin took off after him with Ben and Gwen right behind him.

Opening the door to the bar, Isaiah went inside and ran over to the bar. The little boy got strange looks from many of the occupants as he climbed into a chair and smiled at the barkeep.

The Plumbers ran inside a moment after Isaiah walked in and were shocked as they looked over at the bar. Isaiah was in the arms of the barkeep, normally looked like he'd kill anyone without a second thought. To their surprise, he looked like an older brother with Isaiah swaying in his arms and he hugged the boy tight.

"Isaiah! What are you doing here? You know you're not supposed to come here by yourself," the man said. Isaiah told him he wasn't alone and the three that just entered the shop were with him. The barkeep sat Isaiah on the bar and flicked the boy in the forehead and gave him a stern glare. "Isaiah, you know better than that. If you wanted to come see me you should've asked your brother to bring you by." Isaiah looked down, ashamed of his actions, but Kevin came to his rescue.

"You can't blame the kid for all this mess. I shouldn't have let him tag along, so leave the kid alone," Kevin explained. The barkeep turned to him and smiled. "I'm not mad at him just disappointed. Isaiah knows that his brother worries about him a lot. Now seeing as the kid came here with you, I take you lot need information?"

"And how would you figure that," Ben asked eyeing the barkeeper. Said man scuffed at Ben and replied, "Because that's what everyone comes here for, whether it's for the best black-market deals and locations or where to find a good bounty. Smallville is a small town and because of that simple fact, a lot of dealers come here with their goods simply because most people look over this place when trying to find illegal activity. Oh and the names Barret just so you know."

Ben had to admit that Barret was right about Smallville getting looked over and logically this place would be a good place to set up deals. "Okay so answer me this. Have you seen any suspicious characters as of late, and I mean really out of the ordinary," Ben asked. Barret took hold of his chin and thought about it for a moment when something came to memory.

"Actually yeah there was something that happened about two days ago. These four clowns and I do mean four freaky looking clowns came into town and started harassing people for info on a damn gem. No one town could give them the info they wanted and started to take the town part. Then our lovely elder, Madame Fortuna got rid of them. She's an old school Anodite, with some pretty impressive spells. Anyway after that they took off and ran into the swamp." As Barret finished his story, he let them know that was all he knew. The information they got was more than enough for them and thanked Barret for his help.

The group of four got up and left the bar, and as they walked outside they decided to head into the swamp to see if they could find the clowns. When they started walking, Kevin stopped and said they needed to head back to the hotel first. Ben asked Kevin need from the hotel, and Kevin told him to drop off Isaiah. Then it dawned on Ben and Gwen, Isaiah would be hell bent on following after them, so dropping him off would be best.

Isaiah looked that the older teens and told them he was going. Kevin tried to reason with him, but Isaiah glared at the dragon prince and yelled, "No I'm going with you! I'm not as defenseless as everyone thinks. I got powers of my own I can use watch!" Isaiah stepped away from Ben and the others and took a deep breath. As he did, he closed his eyes and began to absorb the mana around him. A moment later, he opened his eyes and to reveal a pair of blue filled eyes. Gwen gaped at the sight and was impressed that the kid could use mana at such a young age, but then a strange wind began to form and twirled around Isaiah hiding him from their sight. Within the swirling wind, lights began to flash and bend as a spell took effect.

As the spell continued to grow in power, the wind grew stronger and stronger. Soon it was pushing the three Plumbers away. Kevin, who was getting worried, called out to Isaiah. "Ok kid we can you're not a push over. Just turn off the mini twister!" In an instant the winds started to dissipate and reveal a _large_ surprise for the Plumbers.

They looked over at Isaiah and they all dropped their jaws. The little boy they had been hanging out with was no longer standing there. Instead stood young man made of lean muscle, wavy brunet hair, hazel-green eye, and sun kissed skin. He stood about 68 inches and smiled at the plumbers. "Finally! I was hoping he tried to use his mana again," the young man said with a voice that was similar to Isaiah but sounded older.

The new comer gave himself a once over and smiled proudly at his new form. Turning back to face Kevin and the others, he said, "Hi guys I know I'm not the way you remember, but it is still me."

Gwen was the first to break free from the self-induced stupor and responded, "This, this is impossible. Age modification magic was deemed illegal and banned over a thousand years ago."

Isaiah gave them a sad smile and started to explain, "You're right Gwen, the spell that just took place was banned over 1587 years ago, but if I told you that I'm even older than that? The only reason the spell even works is because of a curse placed on the entire city and all land that is considered to belong to Smallville."

_~~~Flashback 1684 years ago~~~_

_It was another beautiful day in the small village as a little boy was running around playing with his friends. Isaiah stopped when he heard the voice of the village elder call him over. He walked over to the older woman's hut and greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. Fortuna smiled the display of affection and told him to follow her. He did as he was told until they came to a strange looking altar that gave a faint glow. _

"_Isaiah this place once home to a powerful dragon that drew its power from water. One day that dragon vanished and the people of this village who saw the dragon as their guardian became scared. That fear made weak enough for a rival village to attack us and nearly wipe us out, but as luck would have it, a beautiful blue light descended into outskirts of the village and into the hands a Anodite-in-training. The light bestowed the boy with the power to drive the village's enemies away, and many saw it as the guardians blessing. Since then we have had an Anodite born into our village to serve as its protector, and I believe you are the one that was blessed with the gift to use the lights power," Fortuna told the young one. _

_Isaiah was in disbelief of the elders words but when he looked at the altar, he felt as if he was connected to it. Fortuna told him to place his hands on the altar and if the light thought he was worthy, it will shine and light up the entire swamp. If not it will shock you, and reject you. Isaiah was frightened by her words but did so nonetheless. When he touched the altar, a faint glow came from within the stone altar, and continually grew as time passed. Fortuna smiled and told Isaiah he was truly the one to protect the village. _

_However with a sad smile, she told him he would need to go back home and pick his things. Isaiah asked the elder why and her reply was that he needed special training that she could not provide. He was going to be under the care of a coven of Anodites who would give him all the training he needed. Isaiah told her he wasn't leaving his home. Fortuna tried to explain to him that everything had already been arranged, but the little one just started crying and begged her not to send him away. _

_It was then a few tears spilled from the old woman's eyes. "Isaiah, you know I think of you and your brother as my grandchildren and if it were in my power to teach you here I would do so. However you will need to learn spells that I have not mastered and you have powers I do not possess. The coven that I'm sending you to have everything required to teach you. They will teach you how to control your powers. The other reason I'm sending you to them is so you won't hurt yourself. If something happens and you tap into your powers by accident you could easily get hurt or kill yourself. That is something I could not bear. Please little one this is hard enough as it is, I don't want to send you away but it's in your best interest," Fortuna pleaded._

_Isaiah could no longer fight the decision as he saw the strongest person he knew break down in tears. He agreed to go without any more fighting, but he promised to come back as soon as he could and all he asked was for the elderly woman to stop crying. Fortuna smiled and told him she would. Once her appearance was back to normal, the two left the swamp and entered the small hotel Isaiah's family owned. After a long goodbye from his brother, Isaiah was sent to the coven to learn the secrets of magic._

_After a decade of training under three of the most unforgiving, merciless, but good-natured Anodites, Isaiah was now able to absorb, and control more mana than his teachers. He was a fully realized Anodite and he all he wanted was to return to the people he left behind a decade ago. When he was given permission to leave, he created a small portal and wished them a long life. _

_The portal opened just on the outskirts of his village, so not to frighten any who may have been in town. He walked into town and noticed that nothing changed while he was away. He smiled as he thought about how nothing was different but he knew thing would be. It didn't take long for him to find his family's inn, and as he walked in, he was treated to the sight of his brother. Short raven colored hair, almond colored eyes, gentle smile, and a slightly muscular frame just as Isaiah remembered him. _

_He ran over to the man, who was watering a few plants in lobby. Before Alex could even turn to notice Isaiah, he was lifted into the air and heard a slightly familiar voice. Alex struggled in the firm hug, but managed to elbow the man in the ribs. Hearing the man grunt, Alex clambered away from him and glared at him. _

"_I don't know who you are but get the hell outta here before beat you within an inch of your life," Alex said glaring at the supposed stranger. _

_Isaiah smiled to himself knowing his brother may to that. He stood up and looked at his brother and said, "You know that hurt Alex, can't you give your little brother a break?" It was then that Alex's glared turned terrifying. _

"_Look ass-hole I know who my family members are and you ain't one of them now, get out before I do something I'll regret," Alex growled. Before Isaiah could say anything to his brother, someone came into the building calling out to Alex. Isaiah knew the voice instantly and turned around. To his utter shock, stood an exact copy of himself, but at the tender age of eight years old. _

_Alex told the younger boy to leave, but Isaiah used his powers to suspend the boy in the air. He glared at the clone and tuned back to his brother. Before Isaiah could do anything further, and fist collided with his face and sent the young Anodite to the ground. "Let him go now or your ass is dead," Alex growled as he crouched again preparing for another attack. _

_Isaiah slowly got back up to his feet and turned his glare to Alex. "Ya know I was just try to talk this out but you're far too hard to talk to right now so just sleep. **Somnus.**" Alex couldn't even try to attack the stranger before he was hit by the spell. He gently fell to the ground and slept peacefully as Isaiah turned his attention back to the imposter. "Alright so we both know you're an obvious fake. So tell me who you are and what the hell you did to my brother," Isaiah said walking over to his clone. _

_The captured boy started to shake violently in fear, but replied, "I-I don't know what you're talking a-about. That's my brother and my names Isaiah Lockhart." This only fueled Isaiah's anger, but as he got closer to the boy, he began to notice the scent on mana on the boy's skin. Letting his anger subside for a moment, and let mana flow into his body. "__**Q**__**ui**__**uere**__**sunt**__." His hands began to glow with a light blue tint, as he pointed his hands at the younger clone. The light blue wave and mana rushed from his hand and began to swirl around the clone. The spell Isaiah cast weaved its way under the coating of mana placed on the boy and broke it apart. Once both spells vanished from sight, Isaiah gasped at who he saw. _

_There before him lay an unconscious boy named Nathan. Isaiah knew Nathan from playing with the boy a decade ago. Nathan lost his parents a few months back and was stayed anywhere he could. Alex told the young man he could live with him and his brother, but he refused to be that much of a bother to them. The most frightening thing to Isaiah was that Nathan was still the same age as he was when he left the village. Isaiah stepped closer to the boy and was about to wake him when purple flames erupted from Nathan's body. The boy immediately woke up and started screaming in pain, but before Isaiah could do anything to smother the magical flames, they grew stronger and destroyed the boy's living body. _

_The echoes of Nathan's screams rang in Isaiah's ears, and he began to cry knowing that he caused the homeless boy to lose his life. He dropped to his knees, but heard the gentle laugh of a woman. "_Poor thing, you just lost a friend didn't you? Oh well, that's what happens when you undo my magic. I've made it so you can't trace it back to me, and if you try this again the same will happen to anyone you release. So it's best if you just let this go and everyone in this poor lil town will be fine_," the mysterious voice said. _

_Isaiah turned his tear stained eyes to the heaven and glared at nothing. "_No, I won't let you have your way! I'll find a way to break your curse, even if it takes me a hundred years I'll find you out and destroy,_" Isaiah said firmly. "_Then you shall fall to my curse as well. I shall turn back to the age you were when I first cast this spell so no one will notice your missing. You have sealed your fate little one," _said the mysterious voice. _

_~~~Flashback End~~~_

After hearing the story Ben, Gwen, and Kevin looked at the young man with sympathy glowing in their eyes. Isaiah waved off concerned looks and told them that this happened a very long time ago and he was over it. What he wanted now was for the curse that had been placed on his home to be broken. The young Anodite, and the Dragon Prince, looked towards their team leader for their next move. Ben was having mixed feelings about what should be done next him-self. On one hand they were on a mission to capture Aggregor's men, but as a Dragon Rider, he was charged to help all those he comes across in need and a town that had been cursed for more than 1250 years was definitely in need of help. After debating this for some time, then decided that it would be best to help the people of Smallville. Isaiah smiled at Ben and gave him his thanks. Kevin smirked at his boyfriend and told Benji that he was very proud of his decision.

Once the decision was made, Isaiah pulled from his jacket pocket, a portable tablet that had the entire area of Smallville knock out on it. A large portion of the map was colored in blue, signifying areas in which Isaiah had already searched. The only portion of the map that was left to search was the marsh just outside of town. Gwen looked at Isaiah and gave him an annoyed look knowing that should have to walk around a marsh. Isaiah gave her a sheepish grin and told them that he wasn't able to get out like he wanted to because the curse kept everyone in the village from entering the marsh.

It was a moment later that a faint blue glow began to overtake Isaiah's body. The elderly Anodite gave them a sad smiled and said, "Well guys it's time for me to leave. Lil Isaiah can't control mana that well, so I only get about 20 minutes at a time when he does use it. Please find out who cursed us and keep them from casting that it again. From what I know you have about 8 hours before the spell activates and turn back the hands of time again. Once that happens you'll suffer under the power of the curse too." The older Isaiah was soon engulfed in the blue light as he gave them his final warning.

As the light faded, the younger Isaiah stood looking very weak and extremely tired, but before he could fall and hurt himself, Kevin caught him and pulled him into his chest. The small boy clung to Kevin's shirt and nuzzled into the raven's chest with a content sigh. Gwen found the sight very adorable, but Ben still found Isaiah to be very annoying. Kevin looked back at the Tennyson's and said it would be best to take Isaiah home first, which Ben and Gwen agreed to.

It was a short trip to get Isaiah home, and quickly grab a few items from their bags and head into the marsh.

The first hour of walking around the marsh revealed that the marsh was somehow able to hide the energy signature of any magical creature. It was strange how this happened naturally, but it made sense for whoever was casting the curse to use this place as their base of operation.

As time passed on, Ben and others started to get worried as the last hour approached. However the trio lucked out when they started hearing voices near the center portion of the marsh. Following the voices, they found a young woman, and four weird looking clowns. Ben shivered at the sight of the clowns but he swallowed his fear and listened close to what was going on.

"Listen La'strange, my master is offering you the world, and all you have to do is time some time away from this little hole in the ground and join us for a few months," the supposed leaders of the clowns said.

The young woman looked very unimpressed by the clown's words and waved her hand. An invisible wave of mana hit the group of clowns and sent them sailing. Gwen stared at the display, while Kevin shivered in fear. "Now you listen you nightmare rejects, you've got some nerve to approach me and even ask such a thing. I am Morgan La'Strange, wielder of the _Staff of Phobos_, and you think you can get me to join some senseless reptile's army to take over the world? Get out of here before I destroy you," the woman said as she sneered at the clowns.

The leader of the clowns stood once more and looked at the woman. "My dear La'Strange, we only come here offering you our help to get what it is you truly desire, the hand of Alexander Lockhart in marriage." He smiled when a shocked expression graced the witch's face. "Yes my dear, I know all your secrets, even how you have cursed this township and even how to break the curse. I didn't want to force you to join use but you leave me no choice. If you don't want your curse revealed to the people and tell them how to break your simple curse, then you will join us."

Morgan was reluctant to join them but her very life was now based on her curse now. "Fine Zombozo, you have my assistance, however you must wait for me to cast my spell, then and only then will I come with you," Morgan stated. Zombozo agreed to her terms and was about to tell her to follow them back to his master when three teens walked out from behind a few trees.

"Alright freaks surrender now and we won't have to hurt you," Kevin said glaring at the group of villains.

Morgan took a step back revealing a stone alter with a faint blue light glowing from within it. "You fools! You've lead them to me. If you want my assistance you must destroy these interlopers and then I will give you my allegiance," Morgan roared pointing towards the Plumbers.

Zombozo smirked and he started to shake his head. "Why my dear lady, we were going to do that anyway. Thumbskull why don't you take the big one, he looks strong enough for you to fight. Frightwig the young girl is yours, and Acid Breath, kill the boy brunet. I want them dead as fast as possible," Zombozo instructed. With no further orders, the Circus Freak Trio took off at their chosen opponents.

_TBC…._

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**Blah blah blah**


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its incarnations.

**Hey everyone here's the chapter I know you all have been dying to read. Sorry about the long wait en-between. I haven't found anything to feed my muses. So this is what I got for now and I hope you like it. Read n Review Please!  
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_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 14_

As the trio sped off to attack the Plumbers, Zombozo smirked and stood guard by the sorceress, hoping that his minions would be enough to stop the Plumbers. "Madame La'Strange wouldn't be desirable to put up a barrier so the fighting doesn't disturb your concentration," Zombozo advised.

The grey eyed sorceress sneered at the clown but stated, "That is probably the only useful thing you've said all day you poor excuse for a clown." Without using too much of her poor, Morgan erected a barrier to protect her from the attacking going on around her as she gathered all the mana she needed to cast her spell.

Gwen was the first to notice the barrier, and wanted to stop her but Frightwig was proving to be a worthy foe. The beautiful clown was able to deflect every spell Gwen used, and attacked her with her snake-like hair. Gwen was getting frustrated with fighting Frightwig, but noticed that she would never get to close to actually fight Gwen herself. Using this Gwen charged at female clown using her mana bolts as cover to keep her hair occupied.

Seeing the young Anodites tactic, Frightwig had her hair slam into the ground, creating a slight earthquake. The young Anodite was thrown off her feet for a few moments, before she created and disc of mana and had it levitate off the ground and went back to going after the clown. Frightwig frowned and charged after Gwen sending her hair to hit the Anodite while she was focused on her disc. Using her years of gymnastics training, Gwen was able to back flip off the disc. Moving quickly Gwen created and began throwing her mana bolts again.

As the attack came at the clown with tremendous speed, Frightwig did her best to block them. However several got past her guard and slammed into her. Gwen smirked as she landed and went to follow up her mana attack with a little hand-to-hand combat. When Gwen was in striking range, Frightwig sent two of her tentacle like hair at Gwen. The attack was easily dodged by Gwen, until a third tentacle came from Gwen's blind spot. Gwen knew she didn't have enough time to dodge the attack, so she used her mana to create a shield.

When Frightwig's hair collided with Gwen's shield, the protective barrier crack and was destroyed rather quickly. Immediately Gwen was sent into the air above Frightwig, slowly losing her strength to fight. '_Crap, how do I beat this chick? She stops me every time I try to attack her. Wait, I'm above her right now maybe I can beat her from her,'_ Gwen thought as a brilliant idea came to mind.

Using what little magic she had, Gwen used it to hold her upside down right above Frightwig. "Hey Medusa, bet you can't reach me up here," Gwen called below her.

Frightwig growled and retorted, "That's what you think you lil runt!" Sending her hair straight up at Gwen, Frightwig fell for Gwen's trap. Smirking, Gwen brought her thumbs and pinky fingers together and pointed down. "**Turbo!**" Once the spell was cast, a whirl wind started to form in her hands and went straight down in the direction of Frightwig's hair. The vortex of wind began to pull Frightwig from the ground. After holding her in the vortex for a minute or two, Gwen stopped her spell and created a disc.

The female clown was soon dropped from the vortex of wind and hit the ground tangled in her own hair unable to move. Gwen floated down on her mana disc and looked at Frightwig, and said, "Well that was nice and all but you're too much trouble to fight."

While Gwen was fighting Medusa, Kevin was having a time fighting the strong man of Circus Freak Trio. Thumbskull may not have been very smart, but he excelled went it came time to fight. Thumbskull's strength made it hard the Kevin to defend himself. Kevin took several punches from the titan, and finally decided to take off the kid gloves. As Thumbskull charged at him once more Kevin reached into his pocket and grabbed a thing strip of steel. He focused on the metal strip and began to absorb its properties of the metal and felt a strange tingle spread over his body.

A moment after the tingle stopped, Thumbskull's fist collided with Kevin's face, which threw Kevin on the floor. Thumbskull smirked thinking he had beaten the raven haired teen, until he felt an overwhelming pain coursing from the hand he punched Kevin with. The raven haired prince started to get back on his feet wearing a smirk that mimicked the one Thumbskull wore moments ago. "Well jackass, let's see wha'cha got now that we're on the same level," Kevin said running at the freaky muscle man. Thumbskull growled at the boy and waited for Kevin. As Kevin threw his first punch, he made direct contact with Thumbskull's forehead.

As Kevin looked at the brute, he was shocked that he freak was still standing. "You think that's enough to stop me? My head the strongest part of me, now you die!" Thumbskull grabbed Kevin's arm and used a judo move and flipped the young man onto his back. With his armor coating, Kevin felt more pain than normal. He used that pain and kicked the brute in the face. Thumbskull stammered back a bit and using the small window he had, Kevin pushed himself back to his feet and full force on the freak.

Kevin wailed on the freakish brute, but once Thumbskull regained his senses, he to match Kevin's strength. The two fighting titans met each other blow for blow. It was obvious that the fighters were evenly matched. It was a fight between who had the will to keep fighting. After nearly ten minutes of nonstop pain, and delivering blows, Kevin backed away panting for air and noticed that pieces of his armor was broken off. When he looked over at the clown brute, he was in no better shape. Judging from how he was positioned, he figured Thumbskull couldn't fight much more. However the same could be said of Kevin, he barely able to stand as he glared at the clown.

Leaning forward, Kevin used Earth's gravity to pull him down and ran at Thumbskull for the decisive blow. The strongman saw this and did the same doing his best to build his speed as he pushed forward. Just before the two came into striking distance, both men reeled their fists back and prepare for their final attack.

When the moment came to let their fists' kiss the opponents' cheek, both men gave the punch everything they had. Once the collision was made, both men took direct punches to the face and neither combatant looked ready to surrender. However with the last of his strength depleted, Thumbskull fell unconscious as he hit the ground. With a triumphant smirk on his face, Kevin stood up and found a nice tree to lean against as he rested and regained his strength.

Ben, who was stuck fighting to ugliest (in my opinion) of the circus trio, was having a hard time getting near is opponent. Whenever Ben was getting to close, the clown would spew acid from his mouth. The first time it happened, Ben was wise enough to get out of the way, but what surprised the hero was that the liquid that clown was spewing was truly acid. The freak told Ben that his acid was his greatest weapon and that it could melt away anything even magic. When Ben inquired about his mom teach not to spit at people, the clown laughed and told Tennyson that is was his mother who taught him how to use the technique.

Ben shivered at the mental picture of the evil clown's mother, and went back to trying to get close to the clown. Using the fight style he learned while he was in school, Ben was able draw the clown close and threw a punch into the clown's stomach. Acid breath backed away from Ben and clutched his stomach. He growled and Ben and opened his mouth once more and released a yellowish-green mist. The mist moved quickly in Ben's direction, but the teen was able to dodge the attack. Once he was out of the way, he looked as the mist swept around a tree. The tree began to sizzle and withers into nothing. Ben's eye grow wide in horror realizing that would happen to him if he gets caught up in the mist.

After a few minutes of rest, Gwen gets back to her feet and looks over at the barrier Morgan set up. The energy flow coming off of it was immense, but no barrier was unbreakable. However Gwen knew she was going to need some help trying to break the barrier. She looked around and found Kevin leaning on a nearby tree resting. Gwen used her powers and noticed Kevin was low on energy. She became worried for Kevin's health, so she prepared a spell to help the weakened dragon.

Gwen raised her hand over her head and said, "**Recuperare****fortitudinem tuam****.**" The magic of the marsh began to gather in her palm a created a small yellow sphere. She threw the sphere at Kevin and let its power enter directly into his body. Within a minute Kevin awoke and was on his feet again. When he looked around he saw Gwen, but he didn't he didn't see any sign of Ben. He ran over to her and asked if she knew what was happening with Ben, but to his dismay she told him she didn't.

"Listen Kevin, Ben will be okay. Right now though, I'm going to need your help. La'Strange and the guy who is control of the clowns are inside the barrier. From what I can tell the curse is almost ready to be used. We have to bring the barrier down before then," Gwen explained.

Kevin nodded his head in agreement and took on his steel form once again. Before Gwen was able to tell him her plan, he charged the barrier and tried to punch throw it. When his fist made contact with the barrier, lightening began to surge into his body forcing him back. "Kevin, the barrier was made to keep anything out, it will destroy you if you if keep that up. We're going to have to find this things weak point and hit it with everything we've got."

Kevin groaned in slight pain and said it was fine. He got back to his feet and Gwen created nearly fifty orbs of mana and sent them at the barrier. As the orbs began to pelt the barrier, Kevin and Gwen looked for one blast to be different from the others. It was the 45th orb to hit the barrier that appeared to have caused the barrier to shift. Gwen noticed the shift and ran to the other side of the barrier with Kevin close behind her. "Kevin, this is going to call for a lot more power than your human form can provide. Do you-," was all Gwen was able to say before Kevin interrupted her. "Way ahead of ya toots."

Kevin drew on his dragon heritage once more and began to change back into his true form. His body began to expand and his bone structure shifted to support his expanding form. His pale milky skin began to darken to match the color of the night, and a mane of fiery hair lined the tip of his skull to the base of his neck.

The young Anodite watched in curiosity as Kevin finished his transformation. When he finished, looked him up and down and said, "Gotta say you're impressive, but my threats still hold even if you're in this form." Gwen turned around and missed the smirk spread across the dragons face. Gathering a small amount of mana, Gwen created a beam of light and told Kevin to focus his flames on the one location. The dragon nodded his head in conformation and told Gwen to take a few steps behind him.

As Gwen cleared his firing range, Kevin took a deep breath and opened his mouth wide. For less than a moment nothing happened, but then powerful black column of fire flew at the spot Gwen told him to hit a moment ago. When the flames collided with the barrier, it started to shimmer but not enough to break the barrier. Seeing this was going to take more power then Gwen originally planned, she began to focus her mana into a bowling ball sized orb. When the energy was compressed to its max, she unleashed it as five lightning bolt like beams flew from the orb, Furthering to weaken the barrier that separated them from their true targets.

Inside the barrier, Zombozo began to question the power of the sorceress. He was told her powers were ancient and with her help they could win the war Aggregor started. However, from what he saw, this woman was no stronger than any other Anodite he came across. "You may want to strengthen your barrier if you don't want those brats getting to you," the evil clown said.

"Do not think my barrier is so feeble that it would fall to the attacks of children. The majority of my magic is focused on regenerating my curse. If don't keep my concentration on this spell, I'll lose everything I've worked for over these many centuries," Morgan countered. The dark Anodite was doing everything she could to continue her curse, but even she knew he barrier wouldn't hold up to the fierce display of power just beyond her protective field. "Fool, get your misshapen minions to get rid of the pests," the dark witch yelled. Zombozo grinned wondering why he never thought of this himself. Digging into his unused powers, Zombozo called to Acid breath telepathically.

The fight between Ben and acid spewing freak was not going in Ben's favor. His clothes were getting torn beat up and from time to time, the acid would get on them. Panting for air, Ben prayed for a miracle, and somehow it was Zombozo who answered. While Acid Breath took his new orders, the freak stood perfectly still. Seeing this as a once in a lifetime event, Ben reach to his left and tried to activate his gauntlet. Releasing a small dial, Ben smiled seeing a few holograms of creatures he learned about during his stay at training. After choosing the most promising monster, Ben slammed his hand down onto the dial waiting for something to happen.

However to the misfortune of young hero nothing happened, yet again. The young brunet groaned at his gauntlet and decided to draw on his other ability. He closed his eyes and focused on the beating heart of the man that was also connected to his gauntlet. The gauntlets middle section popped up once more and Ben quickly slammed down on the core knowing he'd get the power he needed to fight. While nothing changed outwardly, Ben felt a new force building inside of him. He smiled and took a deep breath, leaning his head back to make from for more air than he normally took in.

Acid Breath soon came out of this trance and looked at the brunet with a course expression. The boy was wide open for an attack, so the clown did what came naturally. He took a breath and spewed another batch of the corrosive liquid at Ben.

The acid was soon within arm's length of Ben, before the brunet bent forward and opened his mouth and pushed forth and stream of green flames. When the condensed stream of flames made contact with the acid, the acids were consumed by the fire and raced back to its origins. Acid Breath was shocked to see this, but had enough sense to close his mouth and jump away from the oncoming attack.

The clown growled thinking his best weapon would now be his undoing until a thought crossed his mind. He smirked again and ready for another attack.

A few feet away, Ben noticed the freak was getting ready to attack him again with his acid. '_This guy's got more screws lose than I thought. I just turned his attack against him and he's gonna try that again,_' Ben thought, but he prepared another stream of flames just to be on the safe side. When Acid Breath released his attack, Ben let his attack lose. However what Ben didn't anticipate was the freaks complete understanding of his ability. During the entire fight against the young dragon rider, Acid Breath had spewed streams of acid, but what was hurtling towards Ben now as not a stream of acid but a compressed ball of acid.

As the flames contacted the acid ball, it was set aflame still hurtling at Ben. Ben tried to release more fire hoping to burn the flaming ball of acid out, but the ball only grew in size. Realizing that his plans had failed, Ben did a barrel roll and dodged the attack. With a little left to do, Ben started running away from the clown. Acid Breath followed after Ben trying to quickly take care of the brunet.

When Ben looked behind him, he saw the freak was not too far behind him. '_Crap that freaks gonna catch me if I don't do something,'_ Ben thought as he turned and looked over towards Gwen and Kevin. He figured the barrier must have been powerful if Gwen and Kevin couldn't break it.

A moment later, something Acid Breath said started repeating itself in his head. Ben smirked and reached for his badge. Ben then began to give Gwen and Kevin instructions to get away from the barrier.

The two got Ben's message but thought the young teen had lost his mind, and reluctantly stopped their assault on the barrier. Within said barrier Morgan smiled as she felt the pressure on the barrier lessen. "Well clown, it appears your minions can do something right. Now allow me to show you the true power of this alter," Morgan said as her eyes began to glow. The ancient power that was kept inside of the alter was soon transformed into the curse Morgan had been using for the more than a millennia. Everything felt as it should and Morgan thought she had won once more.

However she soon felt a foreign power pressed against her barrier and was successful and break it down bit by bit. When she looked at the barrier, a lime green colored sludge was beating her barrier. She growled as she tried to strength her barrier but the moment she tried, an opening was created.

While Morgan was under s false sense of security, Ben ran at the barrier and stop directly in front of it. Ben quickly told Gwen to strength the power of the clown that was attacking him. Gwen didn't question Ben as she cast her spell, and when Acid Breath released his torrent of acidic torrent, the liquids corrosive qualities increased exponentially. At the last moment, Ben dodged the attack and let Acid Breath do the Plumbers' job for them. The corrosive liquid quickly began to eat away the barrier leaving an opening to attack Morgan directly.

Gwen smiled the new development and quickly created a mana whip and sent flying towards the witch. Morgan never had a chance to defend herself as Gwen's whip latched itself around her waist. With no hesitation, Gwen pulled the mana rope and broke Morgan's concentration. The barrier soon began to crackle and fade away as Gwen continued to pull the witch out from here only means of protection.

Once enough of the barrier dissipated, Ben charged at Zombozo, hoping to catch the clown off guard. Acid Breath noticed the brunet running at his boss, and went to spew another batch of his acid at him, but Kevin saw the clown and didn't like the look on his face. He acted quickly and sprinted towards the clown, and before it could spew its acid, he swung his tail and had it to mash into his back. The sneak attack spent the acid spewing clown forward and he crashed into a nearby tree and fell unconscious.

Morgan soon recovered from her surprise attack from the young Anodite and swatted Gwen's lasso away. Morgan looked back at her staff and realized that it was still draining the energy of the altar. She turned back to Gwen and growled at her. She knew if she wanted to finish her spell before the cursed lapsed, she would have to defeat the young Anodite first. Morgan turned to face Gwen and glared at the young woman and let her power start to flow.

"You damned little girl. I'm so close to getting what I want and you have the gall to stand in my way. Remove yourself from my sight and I will allow you to live," Morgan said letting her power flow freely. Gwen who stood frozen in fear of Morgan's awesome power, but then the memory of Isaiah flashed before her begging her to help break the curse that he suffered. The young Anodite pulled herself back together and glared at Morgan.

"You selfish bitch, I don't know what you're after but you're not gonna get it. So prepare to say good bye," Gwen stated as she unleashed here mana and a barrage of mana bolts. Morgan was fully prepared for the attack and created a light green shield to protect her from the barrage. However as she took her eyes off of Gwen, the redhead used the _**Vernier **_spell and sped towards Morgan. The older sorceress soon released her blunder as Gwen came rushing at her. Morgan quickly used the _**Meena Goh **_spell, which created an intense beam of heat and directed it at Gwen. Even with her blazing at the beam of heat, Gwen dodged it and used _**Tur-bo**_. The two spell casters fought evenly for a while, but after a few minutes Morgan was reaching her limits. The majority of her power had been focused on her curse, leaving her with very little to use for the battle with Gwen.

She breathed heavily and slouched and glared at the young Anodite. Morgan realized she had no more mana in her to fight Gwen with and did the only thing she could think of. She turned to her staff and tried to drain off some of the magic it was absorbing. However this was a foolish endeavor. The moment she cast her spell the unlimited power that lay within the altar coursed through her body giving her back her lost strength but also just as quickly overwhelming her body. She screamed in pain as she was being torn apart by the power she tried to consume.

Gwen turned away from the sight knowing that it was a gruesome thing to watch, but when it was finished she realized that they had another problem to worry about.

Before that though, Ben was trying to catch Zombozo, which was harder than he thought. The older clown stayed far away from Ben and used make gag tricks and other creep things to try and kill Ben. However it didn't long when Zombozo had the misfortune to run into Kevin, in his human form, and the prince quickly punched the clown's lights out. The rider and dragon smirked at each other when they noticed and felt a huge power from behind them. As they turned around, they saw Morgan's staff was still stuck in the altar and when she tried to absorb the power, it turned against her and was now rampaging across the terrain. Ben and Kevin ran to Gwen and asked her if she knew a way to contain the power, and when she told them no, they began to fear for their lives.

The power that was being released through Morgan's staff was frightening to watch as it destroyed the land all around them. It was clear that this was Morgan's power source for the curse, but now with Morgan gone, they had no way to stop the power. Fate then smiled down on them when and rampaging mana soon made it way to the center of the swamp and stopped as if it had been blocked by a barrier. Ben and his team looked through the fog and were stunned to see a fully grown Isaiah walking through the mist with one hand in front of him absorbing the rogue beam of mana. He was eerily calm, as he made his way towards the shrine and upon reaching it he pulled Morgan's staff free from the sacred shrine.

He then snapped the wooden staff in half and turned towards his friends. "Thank you for freeing us from the curse. I should have guessed Morgan was behind such a powerful curse. She was the one of the few people who wasn't in the town when I left for my training," Isaiah said as he smiled.

"Okay so now that you all are free from Morgan's curse what are you going to do?" Gwen asked curiously.

"First off let everyone know what has happened over the ages, and hopefully leave the life I was given in this modern era," Isaiah answered.

Ben nodded his head and told the Anodite they would take their leave sense their mission was done, and all they had to do was call headquarters and get Zombozo and his clowns picked up. When Isaiah gave him a strange look, Ben told him about the four clowns they fought for the past hour and a half. Isaiah told him that he only saw three clowns when he walked into the area, and when Ben looked back, sure enough only the trio of clowns remained. Their leader fled the scene while they worried about Morgan's staff. Ben was pissed but still he had completed his first mission and hoped Marello wouldn't be too mad at them for letting the ring leader get away.

_TBC..._

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**Okay so did I do a good job? If not I hope you'll forgive and let me make up for it in the next chapter. Here's a lil preview to tease you with as I get it ready ok.**

**With their first mission complete, Ben, Gwen, and Kevin turn to Marello's office and give their report. After telling them good job, he gives them a week to reach and Kevin takes full advantage of the situation by taking Ben to a hot spring.**

**Hope you liked the teaser. And as I normally say TTFN...  
**


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its incarnations.

**Hey everyone I know you're probably wondering what happened? Okay so I right now I kinda lost where I wanted to take the story from here. I have a few ideas but none seem to be that good. So right now I'm asking you all for any suggestions or things you wanna see.  
**

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_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 15_

When Marello's team arrived to pick up the captured villains, Ben explained that the ring leader had gotten away while dealing with the rampaging swell of mana. The commander of the team nodded and told Ben and the others that they did a good job, and to report to Marello once they were back in town. Ben, Gwen, and Kevin saluted the commander, but asked where Marello's office was. The commander smiled and told them that he'd give them a lift back to their headquarters if they could get packed in the next half hour.

The three teens were more than willing to take the free ride home, and Isaiah helped out a little by teleporting their things, including Kevin's car into the swamp for pick up.

"Okay stupid question but how are ya gonna get our stuff outta here with that little helicopter," Kevin asked as he pointed his thumb over his shoulder to the helicopter Lt. Trays flew into the swap with.

Lt. Trays smiled a bit and told them that the heli-jet was his personal ship, and the heli-carrier would be there shortly. Ben's raised an eye brow at the Lt, until he heard the sound of a huge ship. Gwen turned around and noticed the large heli-carrier heading towards them. She smiled looked back to the Lt and thanked him for the ride. Trays smiled and went back to his jet and prepared to take the Circus Trio to the holding cells aboard the carrier.

A few moments later a cargo bay door opened at the bottom of the carrier and fired a light green beam of light. The beam hit Kevin's car, along with the young Plumbers, and began to pull them away from the ground. Isaiah, who watched them float away, smiled at waved farewell to his new friends and wished them luck on their path of life. When the carrier left the area, Isaiah turned to the altar and walked over to it. He placed his hand onto it and used his connection with it to have it sink into the ground so no one would use its power as Morgan did. As the altar sank into the ground Isaiah smiled and said, "Well I wonder if the legends of old will come to pass. Will the dark dragon arise and wipe out all that live, or will the wielder of the dragon spirits stop the coming destruction."

It was short flight from Smallville back to Bellwood, and for the majority of the trip the three young Plumbers slept and gathered back their energy from the fight with the clowns and Morgan. Luckily for the recruits the carrier was equipped with an area for the crew to rest, so that was where Trays lead them once the ship left Smallville.

Upon their arrival, the recruits missed the landing of carrier into a hidden passage way from the lands that sat behind the royal city. However they were awoken by Trays and were told to follow him in their car so they could report to Col. Martelli. Once the teens were awake and ready to function properly it was nearing 10pm and they tried to talk Trays into taking them to see their commander in the morning. Even with all the begging, Trays told them to hurry up. Begrudgingly the teens followed their superior off the ship and into the parking garage for those who worked in the hidden base.

Kevin soon started to panic when he remembered his car was still on the ship. However Trays told him that the car was removed and placed alongside his own. When Kevin sighed in relief, Trays rolled his eyes and began to wonder if Kevin was the prince of dragons.

After a few moments of walking, he stepped in front of his car and waited for Ben and his crew to get ready. As his car turned over and roared to life, Kevin's car did the same, and the two men sped out of the garage into the darkened city. Kevin questioned Marello's sanity for having them come to his office to give him a report on the events in Smallville, but Gwen gave her theory that Marello wanted all the information they could give him, while it was still fresh in their joined memories. Ben had to agree with Gwen that that may have been Marello's reason, but he also agreed with Kevin that the report could have waited till the next day.

Gwen argued that Marello had a good idea that they should report as soon as they got back, but she agreed with the guys that going to back to bed sounded really good.

After a few more minutes of driving, they stopped in front of an older business complex that was situated in one of the shabbier parts of Bellwood. The three teens gave the building a questionable look, but nonetheless parked in the run down parking lot. As Lt. Trays got out of his car and walked towards the shabby building, Kevin and the other were hesitant to follow. Though Bellwood was mostly a peaceful place, there were still places like this one gave off an intimidating aura of danger.

The walk into the building was an odd one as they looked around and saw that the inside was very different from the outside. Inside the build was a very modern and very professional design. The teens looked around in awe as they took in the sight of the building. When Trays called to them, they quickly gathered their composure and made their way to the front desk.

At the desk at a young lady with lightly tanned skin and raven colored hair much like Kevin's. She was of Asian descent, and her nametag stated her name was Julie.

When she noticed they were walking towards her she smiled at them, but took particular notice of Ben. Her smile became a lot more flirtatious, as she greeted the newcomers. Kevin noticed and let a low dragon like growl under his breath. Ben heard his lover and looked back at him with a questioning look. When he got nothing but a displeased look from Kevin, the young brunet shrugged and turned back around.

The group talked with Julie for a few moments while she called Marello's secretary and made sure the young unit commander was still in his office. Julie's flirting was slowly making the already short tempered dragon lose the little bit of patience he had. However for Julie a miracle occurred that saved her from becoming barbequed.

"Hey Julie, Col. Martelli is still in his office so go and send Lt. Trays and the others up," a voice spoke from the intercom that was attacked to Julie's desk. Julie pouted a bit seeing Ben was leaving before she could get his number, but her job came first so she told Trays to take the upstairs.

Once they within the elevator, Trays smirked and let out a small chuckle when he glanced over at Ben. Confused on what was happening Ben asked the older man what was so funny.

"Nothing really, your boyfriend looked like he was going to kill Julie the more she talked to you. Julies a great kid, but she's kinda slow at figuring out people's relationship status," Tray explained. "Oh and if she sees something she wants, she'll go great lengths to get it."

Ben shrugged his shoulder and replied, "Then I'll just explain to her-." However that's as far as Ben got before Kevin jumped in.

"I'll punch that chick square in her chest if she tries anythin wit _my_ Ben," the dragon prince exclaimed as his fangs elongated and a fierce growl erupted from his mouth.

Ben turned to face Kevin and gave him a slight frown showing his displeasure with his comment. He then shook his head and sighed, thinking that Kevin may blow a gasket if he didn't help him simmer down. Stepping closer to Kevin, Ben wrapped his arms around Kevin's waist and pulled him as close as he could. "Kevin, you know I'm not going anywhere. So what's the point of getting your tail in a knot," the brunet asked in a calm soothing tone.

Ben's voice almost instantly calmed Kevin down as his canines retracted and his growls were soon silenced. Lt. Trays just shook his head at the cute display he heard behind him, while Gwen rolled her eyes.

The elevator opened a moment later revealing a large open area. The open area somewhat mirrored the welcome desk on the first floor. However the major difference between the two floors what, was this floor was not as massive and off to the side of the young secretary was a pair of larger glass French doors. After taking a moment to admire the room, Kevin walked up to the desk and looked at the young woman who sat behind the desk.

Taking a brief moment to look up from her computer, the young woman noticed Kevin and the rest of the group. She gave them a warm smiled and said, "Hello my names Helen Wheels, and I'm Col. Martelli personal secretary. However right now isn't the best time to see him. I you could just…"

Kevin didn't like being told he'd have to wait to see Marello, so he turned to French styled doors, and kicked them in. The sight that was exposed to him was not the one he thought he'd be experiencing though. Spread across the desk was Col. Martelli, his button down shirt open revealing smooth dark mocha skin, and a tall muscular man of Latino descent was holding Marello's arms above his head. The stranger had the young commander pinned down kissing him when the Kevin kicked the door in. Upon seeing that he was caught in a very awkward position, Marello acted like a shy girl with magic. Pushing his muscle man away, he waved his hand towards Kevin and the door, pushing both of them in the other direction. Kevin was flung out of the office and the French doors closed.

Ben and Gwen stared at the closed door with slacked jaws after witnessing the events that just passed. Thankfully they recover quickly, and Ben quickly walked over to Kevin to make sure he was okay.

After seeing his lover was doing fine, Ben promptly slapped his Kevin in the back of the head. Kevin groaned from the harsh contact and frowned at Ben. He then asked why he got hit.

"Because my sweet idiot, you barged your way into _our commander's office_! Oh, and let's not mention the fact that said commander was preoccupied at the moment. Dude do you know how much shit he could give us for that," Ben ranted.

Kevin slouched feeling slightly guilty for causing Ben to have to rant like he was. Barging in on Marello, he didn't care to all that much about, seeing as it was nearly midnight and they were still had to give the kid a rundown of what happened in Smallville.

Much to Kevin's relief, the doors to Marello's office opened up and his voice called the three recruits inside. Once they stepped inside, the noticed Marello had a none too pleased expression on his face, while the older man who was molesting Marello earlier held a calm, but annoyed facial expression.

"Benjamin, Kevin, Gwen, I'm glad you've returned to us as quickly as you did. I'd like to introduce you to my second-in-command, David Florez. I'd like to begin this meeting by saying that as your superior I'm not too thrilled on having someone barge into my office, and interrupt me when I'm getting reacquainted with my lover. So, Kevin your punishment will be month of working on opposite shifts from Ben while you're working in the command center.

Now then, what I need to know from you all is what exactly happened while you were in Smallville? I want to know the entire story from start to finish. I want every detail you can remember."

The trio looked between one another, trying to figure out who should start, and when it seemed like they couldn't make up their minds, Gwen started off on who they arrived.

Over the course of an hour, Gwen told Marello everything that happened while they were in Smallville, with Ben and Kevin interjecting facts they remembered. Marello listened intently the entire time and when the trio finished, he sighed and stood up from his chair.

"Well from what you all have told me, I think I know what Aggregor is after. The altar that Morgan was using is part of a set, each of the five altars represent one of the primary dragon colors. Their locations were lost ages ago, but now it seems Aggregor wants to try and use them to take over our kingdom. If the old stories are true then if he gets his hands on any of them, he can use them to bring us to our knees," Marello explained looking more worn out than when they first entered the office.

"But for now you all don't have to worry about that. For the next two weeks you all will be on leave and the money that wasn't spent on your mission will be split between the three of you."

Once they were accused, the trio smiled thinking about how they were going to have fun with two weeks off. It was apparent Gwen was going to stay in bed all week, and Ben had the same idea if Kevin hadn't planned something fun.

On the third day of their vacation, Ben sat on the couch slowly going insane. Ever all the training and his first mission, Ben soon couldn't figure out what to do with himself with two weeks of free time. Kevin however seemed to enjoy the free time. However instead of spending that time with Ben, Kevin was busy locked in his room. Ben thought this was strange but ignored it thinking the young dragon wanted some privacy.

Ben's boredom reached its zenith, Kevin came into the living room and sat down next to his lover. He smiled at Ben and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Ben turned to the dragon with one eye brow raised.

"Okay what's up with you? You've pretty much ignored me for the past three days and now you're acting as if nothing's happened," the brunet explained, still curious about Kevin's behavior.

Kevin's smiled faltered for a moment but then he let it fall and released a sigh. "Okay so you got a point. Look I was busy trying to find a part I needed for my car. The only place that has it is down near the coast, and I was thinking maybe you'd want to come along. I'm not sure where the place is so it may take a few days.

Ben thought about the offer for a few seconds before he told Kevin he'd be happy to go. The brunet figured while Kevin was busy with buying parts for the car, he could relax on the beach. With that thought on his mind, Ben smiled and leaned into Kevin. "Kevin have I told you lately that I love you," Ben asked.

"Na you could stand to tell me that a lil more," said the smirking raven. The young dragon then placed his arm around his lover, and gently pulled him closer. The young hero sighed thinking that his lover was to full of himself.

The two spent the rest of the evening together wrapped in each other's arms and enjoying each other's company. When eight o'clock came around Kevin suggested to Ben, that they get ready for their trip the next day. Be grudgingly Ben sat up and playfully glared at Kevin, and told him, "See you really know how to ruin a moment ass." He stood up and stretched and revealed the smallest patch of skin to his raven haired lover. Kevin licked his lips as he went to grab the other young man. However Ben expected this and swiftly dodged the hands of the raven. With a slight growl Kevin went to reach for Ben once more, but missed him again.

"No no Kevy, you said to get ready for tomorrow, so that I'm going to do," Ben said in a teasing manner. With the swaying of his hips, Ben walked out of the room. Kevin growled once more and started to go after him, but then a notorious idea sparked inside his head. His face soon formed into evil smile then headed to his room. '_Alright Benji, you're gonna learn why it's not nice to tease a dragon,'_ Kevin thought with a vindictive laugh.

As the sun rose the next morning, Kevin was up early prepping the car for the road trip. When Ben came outside with his bags, Kevin turned to look at him. Ben wore pair of light blue Bermuda shorts, a matching tank top, and a pair of scandals. Kevin smiled at the sight, and turned back to his work.

"Morning Ben, hope you're for our trip," Kevin greeted. Ben smiled back and placed his bags in the open trunk. He walked over to Kevin and lent close to him to give him a kiss, but Kevin pulled away from Ben before contact could be made. "Alright time to get this show on the road," Kevin stated walking towards the driver side door. Ben's jaw dropped seeing Kevin walk away from him, but he quickly recovered and glared slightly towards Kevin. When Kevin stuck his head out of his window and told Ben to hurry up, the brunet's slight glared blossomed into a full on one.

However the brunet walked to the other side of the car and slammed the door once settled inside. "Hey don't slam the door! My baby didn't do anything to you," the raven exclaimed only fueling Ben's anger.

_TBC..._

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**Okay so before you all try to kill me, I plan on working a lil hard on this story. I hope I can get those suggestions from you.**


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its incarnations.

**Hey everyone I'm back! Ok so I know you all have been waiting for this chapter and I know a few of you are gonna want to hit me but I hope you all like my work anyway. I really started losing my faith in this story. I know part of it is because I can't keep to one idea and stick to it, but my last few reviews got me back in high spirits to finish off this chapter. So I'd like to thank darkemochic, my guest review, Lovegranted (Thanks for that lil reminder…let's just say Michael decided to work by himself after of week of being her partner), lindiloo02, Dario Argento Syndrome, and Bubble child. **

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_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 16_

The ride to coast was a long silent trip for the two lovers. Kevin was trying his best to act as if Ben's anger didn't affect him, while Ben was still bothered that Kevin turned away from him when he tried to kiss him earlier. Both boys were overacting to one another, and paid for it until they reached the coastal city. Once they passed the welcome sign, Ben's excited reignited and the young brunet turned his head in every direction to take in all the sights. The town they entered was known Twilight Town, and it was called that because at sunset the entire city was covered in twilight of night and day for several hours.

Kevin smirked as Ben bounced around in his seat and started babbling about the history of the city. After a few minutes of driving, the duo pulled up to the entrance of their hotel. Ben's eyes widened at the name of the hotel, _The Peninsula Tokyo_. This was one of the most luxurious hotels in Twilight Town, and with their cheapest, but luxurious, room starting at 1000 drack a night; it would have to be at the top of game to keep so many people coming back.

After bringing the car to a complete stop, Kevin stepped out of the car and started walking around to open Ben's door. However before he was halfway around the car, a doorman appeared next the door and was opening it for Ben. "Good morning gentlemen and welcome to _The Peninsula Tokyo_," the young man said as he bowed at the waist and extended his arm out to his side. It was rather corny but it made Ben feel rather important so he stepped out of the car and returned the greeting.

"If you gentlemen would step into the lobby and check in, I will have your car parked and your luggage brought up to your room."

Kevin thanked him and took Ben by the hand and led him into the hotel's lobby. As they approached the service desk, a slightly older man in a black suit greeted them with a slight bow in which they returned. "Hello, I made a reservation here under the name Kevin Levin," the raven told the older man in a very polite and calm way. The older man nodded and looked up the reservation and smiled. "Ah I found it Mr. Levin, we were surprised that you'd ask for the suite you asked for but nevertheless we had it prepared for you and it waiting on you. Will all of your charges be made on the card that you used to reserve your room with?" Hiroshi asked. Kevin answered the man with a simple yes and Hiroshi smiled at him. Once everything was done Hiroshi told them that their luggage was on its way to their room and to have a pleasant day.

Smiling Kevin took the key cards to the room and thanked Hiroshi. He took Ben's hand and started towards the elevator when Ben looked at Kevin and asked, "Kevin this place is nowhere near cheap how did you get us a room here, and how on earth are you gonna pay for it?"

Kevin rolled his eyes and Ben replied, "I get paid just like you do Benji, and with that extra bit from the leftovers from our mission we got plenty of spending money."

Ben started to comment but stopped when they exited the elevator and walked to their room. When Kevin opened the door, for the hundredth time that day, Ben's jaw dropped at the magnificent designs of the hotel. The room was set up with an entertaining area, their actually king size bed, and off from the bedroom, was the bathroom that Ben was dying to find out how it looked.

However before he could do anything like that, Ben was thrown against the door and forced into a wild and fierce kiss. Ben relented into the kiss and soon began to press back with just as much force as Kevin. Kevin soon took his hands and took hold and Ben's slim waist and pressed him further into the door with his broad chest. The lessening space was pleasing to Ben as he wrapped his arms around Kevin's neck and let his beast slowly devour him.

When it became necessary to breathe, Kevin pulled away and attacked his lover collarbone. Said brunet only tilted his head to give the raven more room to work and let out a pleasure filled moan.

Kevin smirked as he began nipping at Ben's collarbone. As things became more enticing, Kevin pulled away from Ben and began taking his lover's clothes off. Rough hands soon began to travel slowly over Ben's sides exciting the brunet as his body started to tingle were the dragon prince touched.

It took very little for Kevin to start truly giving into his inner beast as he swept Ben off his feet and carried him to _their_ bed. Loving the ideas slowly taking shape in his head, Kevin laid Ben and began taking off his shirt.

Being force to look at his shirtless lover, made Ben blush thinking how long it had been since he and Kevin had a chance to be like this. Not wanting to lose this rare moment, Kevin straddled Ben's waist and began running his hands over the sensitive body of his love. The lithe brunet began to squirm and moan as the gentle caresses continued.

Leaning forward, Kevin used his position to take hold of Ben's hands and hold them above the brunet's head. With a mischievous smile, Kevin pushed his exploration further and brought his lips to Ben perked nipples.

As delicately as he could Kevin took his touch and swirled it around the edge of the perked flesh. He circled the perked flesh several times as his victim, gasped in pleasure. Seeing that Ben was enjoying himself Kevin used his free hand to reach down and started to undo his lover's pants. The excitement of having Ben alone, to do what he had been wanting from the moment he met the brunet, was truly starting to get to Kevin. He quickly was able to get Ben's pants off and looked at the toxic green boxers Ben wore, licking his lips as he did so.

Kevin started to remove the boxers, but as he got them halfway down, a shrill cry of music filled the room, scaring Ben and Kevin. The shrill cry was from Ben's looking glass. Kevin glared in the direction of where Ben's pants had been thrown in. With a sigh Ben started to get up to answer the device, but Kevin made no move to get off Ben.

"Kev, let up. I need to see who's calling, it may be important," Ben reasoned while he was mentally furious at whoever decided to call.

Kevin echoed Ben's mental thoughts by letting out a feral growl as he turned to Ben. The brunet rolled his eyes and tried again. "Please Kev, if this doesn't take too long we can go back to perving on each other."

It took several moments for Kevin to give in, and reluctantly remove himself from Ben's waist. The young brunet made a dash for the device and barely caught it before it went over to his voicemail.

While Ben began to chat, Kevin began to pout and mental plan whoever disturbed his playtime's death. As his plan became more defined, a sudden thought crossed his mind. This sudden interruption was the exact thing that he did to his commander. He mentally groaned to himself thinking about how mad Marello may really be and what the young commander may be planning to do to him while he's away from Ben.

When Ben came back to sit on the bed, Kevin turned to him and asked, "Who was it?" Kevin's tone wasn't as harsh as Ben thought it would've been, and this slightly unnerved Ben. "It was Gwen, she noticed we were gone and wanted to know where we went."

Upon hearing the redheads name, Kevin decided to find a way to get the young sorceress back for disturbing his alone time with Ben.

While gazing at his half naked lover Ben noticed that Kevin wasn't looking at him. He frowned at the thought until a fun little thought came to mind. Ben turned around and started to crawl towards Kevin. However his actions went unnoticed by his love until, Ben pounced the unsuspecting dragon.

Taken by surprise, Kevin looked up at Ben, and smiled at him. "Didn't think you were the type to try n change the positions we normally take, but you know I'm no bottom," the cocky dragon stated. With a quick move, the raven rolled his hips and turned things around on Ben. The brunet pouted at Kevin, but reached his head and neck as far as he could and whispered into his lover's ear.

"How do you know this isn't what I wanted in the first place," was all Ben said as he licked the raven's ear. Kevin shivered at the sensation, but after having been interrupted the first time, Kevin wasn't much into trying to rekindle the moment.

Kevin gave Ben a gentle smiled and started to climb off Ben. "Sorry Benji your cousin killed the mood. Let's go find somethin to eat, I bet your hungry and you don't even know it," was Kevin's response. On cue, Ben's stomach began to rumble causing the brunet to blush uncontrollably.

A gentle laugh passed Kevin lips as he got off the bed to find his and Ben's shirt. Said brunet was folded his arms and crossed his legs. _'I swear I'm going to kill Gwen for this,_' Ben thought angrily. However a moment later everything went dark as something hit Ben in the face. Pulling the item off his face, Ben looked to see it was his shirt, and with a sigh he put it back on and followed Kevin towards the door.

As the couple walked towards the main entrance, they realize that they don't know where the car was parked. A stray bell boy saw the pair and walked over and offered his assistance. Once Kevin explained that he needed his car, the young man smiled and walked them over kiosk and told them to type in the name and one of the valets would bring the car around for them. While Kevin wasn't comfortable with the idea, the young man assured him that if anything was wrong with his vehicle just let the person manning the front desk know.

With a bit more confidence, Kevin typed in his name, and waited for his car to be brought to them. It took a few moments for Kevin's car to pull up in front on the building, but when it did, a valet stepped out and told the young dragon that his car was one of the interesting he had ever had the chance to drive around, even if it was for just a few moments. Kevin soaked up the praise, while Ben rolled his eyes and went to the other side of the car and got in.

Seeing that his lover got into the car already, Kevin excused himself and got into the car. "Ya' know ya didn't hav to walk off like that. I was comin," Kevin said as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"Yeah I know, but you can't blame me for being a lil pissed. You did leave me hanging back in the bedroom," Ben countered folding his arms.

"Hey that wasn't my fault, blaming your redheaded cousin for cock-blocking. Once the moods gone it'll take a while for things to fall back into place. So I figured why enjoy a nice lunch and sight see while we get back in the mood."

Ben thought about Kevin's comment and decided the raven had a point. Things would have been awkward if they tried doing something again, and seeing the town wasn't a bad idea.

The two drove around for about twenty minutes before Ben saw a restaurant that seemed to appeal to him. The restaurant was named The Dragon's Eye, which to Kevin didn't sound so appealing. However to his misconception, the restaurant severed a plethora of different types of cooking styles. As they stepped inside, a young man with long blonde hair and navy blue eyes greeted them. The young man quickly showed them to a table and gave them their menus.

"Hello my name's Jason and I'll be your server today. Can I start you off with something to drink," the blonde said as he pulled out an order pad and pen. Kevin looked over their drinks and noticed they had several alcoholic beverages he wanted to try, but he knowing Ben, the brunet would tell him no, so he ordered a coke, while Ben got a Sprite. Jason smiled and told them he'd be back shortly with their drinks.

While the waiter was gone, Kevin took Ben's hand and ran his thumb across Ben's knuckles. "Ya know it's nice to have some time alone. I've been wanting to take you someplace like this since our third week of training with Tasha and Marello," Kevin said looking into Ben's eyes. The brunet blushed and looked down at the table for a moment, then looked back up to Kevin and smiled.

"Yeh same here, but with all that training, missions, and family, we barely get any time alone together. Maybe we should move into an apartment together," Ben replied. Kevin eyes widened at the thought of living with Ben. In an apartment, away from anyone who could interrupt their fun time. The raven soon drew himself out of his fantasy world and smirked at Ben.

"Yeh that would be fun," was all Kevin said, but it gave Ben enough info to know he was in for a world of trouble if that happened. It was a moment later that the waiter returned with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order. The two males ordered after taking a few moments to look over the menu once again and started talking again once Jason left to have their orders filled.

After an hour of eating, Kevin put down his fork and began to slouch in his chair. He then began to rub his stuffed stomach and looked to Ben sluggishly. "Uhhh, that was so good. I didn't think I ever eat that much in my life. Even in my other body. So you wanna go back to the room and jus crash," Kevin asked, while he partially started to fool asleep.

Ben shook his head at his lover, even though he ate just as much as Kevin. "Kev, if we do that, you'll just become a lazy house lizard. Let's go explore, I want to see some of the tourist attractions," Ben replied excitedly. It was a moment later that Jason came back with the check and overheard the conversation.

"If I may make a suggestion, there's an old temple not too far from here that gives guided tours through its ancient corridors. Plus today they're having exhibition matches between the young monks and the elders to see which of the young monks will go on to the next level in their training," Jason offered with a smile. Ben started to beam that the idea and told Kevin that was what he wanted to do.

Kevin dropped his head in disappointment, he really wanted to get back into bed, but he couldn't deny Ben with such a happy expression on his face. So he said why not and took the check.

As they exited the restaurant, Jason smiled and waved them off and looked towards the old temple. Most days the sight of the temple would come him, but for some reason, today it seemed that a negative energy seemed to exist somewhere with the hallowed halls.

It took them under twenty minutes to reach the temple, and as they found got out of the car, Ben and Kevin noticed that they would have to walk about a quarter of a mile to reach the temple. While Kevin mentally groaned at the thought of a long walk, Ben smiled and took Kevin's hand.

"Let's get going. Gwen's always nagging me about how uncultured I am, so let add a lil me culture to me," the brunet stated has he began to drag Kevin towards the wooded pathway. When they finally reached the temple, Kevin was much livelier as he stared that the beautiful landscape and the old but well preserved building that created the temple. As the couple walked further into the temple, notice a man who looked to be in his late thirties standing at the entrance of the temple.

Once they reached the entryway, the monk gave them a slight bow and greeted them. "Hello guests it is a pleasure to have you visit us. My name is Mako, one of the monks of this temple. Would you care for a tour?"

Ben agreed to the tour, but Mako explained to them that on a normal day the tours were conducted on a much more private manner, but do to many of the younger monks preparing to the changing of ranks, they were a little short handed, and they'd be guided around with young lady. The monk made a hand gesture pointing behind them. It was the first time Kevin or Ben noticed the other presence behind them.

As they took in the young woman's appearance, they both thought that she was very attractive. The young woman was about Ben's height, with a slim, but curvy frame. She wore a mini purple jacket that stopped just below her breasts, and underneath the jacket was a white t-shirt with "Luvs Mana" written across the front. The t-shirt stopped a few inches above a pair of tight Capri pants. However the most elegant features of the young woman were her orchid colored eyes, and long platinum hair. After taking in her appearance, Ben smiled at her and said, "Hi, sorry about not noticing you earlier."

The young woman giggled and replied, "It's fine, I think I'd be just as oblivious if I had a hunky boyfriend like you."

Kevin blushed at the compliment and thanked her. After everyone was introduced, Mako started the tour. After an hour of guiding them around, they started down a long hallway. Mako explain that this hallway lead to the original part of the temple, where the shrine to the guardian of their land was kept. "However no one except the high priest or priestess is allowed back there. The energy of the shrine envelops the entire temple," Mako said as he turned another hallway leading them to an outside arena.

"And that ends the tour of the temple. I invite you all to stay and watch the exhibition matches. Those who perform well enough will be moved to the next level."

Ben and Kevin smiled and followed Mako to the seating area with Hope, the platinum haired young woman, following behind them.

When the exhibition started, Hope got up and excused herself and started towards the ladies room. Once she was out of sight, Hope sighed in relief. "Finally, being around all these goody goodies was starting to make me nausea. Now let's get this show on the road _**Quae **__**nunc **__**duas **__**proposi **__**ut **__**facilius**_!" Her eyes began to glow magenta as she began her chant, and as she finished, her body began to look as if it was being pulled apart. However instead of being torn apart, a clone of Hope was produced. The original gave the clone a once over and made sure there were no flaws with it. Once she deemed it a perfect look alike, she began a more thorough investigation of how well made the clone was.

"What is your purpose," Hope question in a demanding voice.

"My purpose is to serve as my master no matter what cost may come to me. For this task you want me to serve as your place holder at the arena, so if anything drastic happens while you complete your task, no one will suspect you," the clone relayed.

With the answer being to her satisfaction, Hope sent the clone back to the arena as she cast a quick spell to change her clothes to something that would conduct magic better. It consisted of a purple dress with a pink ribbon around her waist and a black crown on her head; in addition to that she wears black fingerless gloves. At the top of her dress, she has a cerise pink gem with a golden border, and she also wears long dark purple tights. In the original series, Hope wore her silver hair in a low ponytail, with two strands of hair out and light purple and pinkish eyes, along with purple lipstick.

With a smile on her face, she cast one more spell to conceal her mana to make her next task easier. She then left the women's restroom, and back towards the last hallway they walked down before they started watching the exhibition matches. Once she reached the intersection of the hallway, she made a left and continued till she found her prize. Before her was a large pair of cedar doors. The doors bound by a large light rope, and from what Hope could feel, it was seal with a few sealing spells from the ancient times. Hope groaned once she realized some of the sealing spells were as old as they were.

Knowing that taking each spell apart one by one would take too long, she placed her hand on the door and focused on finding the heart of the many spells. If she undid the heart, the rest would fall by the wayside, or that was what she was taught. As she sifted through the many spells, she began to think the heart didn't exist until she felt a thumb of magic that sounded like the beat of an actual heart. She smiled began to use her magic to undo the enchantment.

It was a matter of minutes before the hum of magic that flowed around the door faded, and the large enchanted rope that held the door closed untied itself and fell to the floor. Hope smirked and used her power to open the doors to the inner shrine.

In the center of the room sat an old wooden shrine. When Hope stepped into the room, she felt the power from the shrine float all around her. The mana the emanated from the shrine was crisp and clear, and it made Hope want to puke.

She walked further into the room, and began to change the flow of her mana. As the frequency of her mana changed, Hope began to feel better. The truth behind her unease with the room was because of the wavelength of her natural mana was the very opposite of mana that floated around the room. Once her mana mimicked the energy of the room, Hope walked over to the shrine and peered inside.

On a small stone base sat a yellow gem in the shape of the sun. Hope grinned with a malicious smile, as she gazed at her prize. Slowly Hope placed her hands on either side of the gem and let her mana follow out and into the gem. Her mana soon began to harmonize with the gems and with the first step completed, she began to alter her mana frequency back to its natural wavelength.

Back in the arena, the tournament reached the semi-finals and both Plumbers were surprised how well the monks fought. The fighting style the temple created was a mix of elegant, swift, and strong movements that left very little time for an opponent to attack. Ben stared in awe, when he felt something change in the air. The brunet looked around but didn't notice anything different until he looked back to the tournament. Most of the young monks had now upped the fighting style. Their strikes lost some of its elegance and was replaced much more force than what was called for.

When Ben mentioned the change to Kevin, the young dragon just commented that they may be changing tactics to gain the upper hand. Ben nodded his head, but still felt something was wrong. As the tournament progressed, Ben noticed the monks were becoming more and more aggressive. Not only had that but the calm serene state around the temple begun to change as well.

This time Ben forced Kevin to listen to him and asked him to use his dragon sight to see if he could tell what was going on. Dragons had a special type of vision that would allow them to see the auras of those around them as well as the presence of magic. When Kevin looked at the monks, he was shocked at what he saw. The normal white pure aura of the monks was now grey and slowly turning black. Kevin could also see the strings of magenta, the color of magic, circling every monk in the temple. The worst part of all this, was that the not only were the monks changing, but the temple and Twilight Town as well. The dark energy was flowing from the temple into the ground.

"Yo Ben, we need to call some back-up like an hour ago. They temple's turning evil somehow and its power seeping into the town," Kevin explained urgently. Ben nodded his head and tapped his summoner and called Marello.

In Marello's office, the young commander was staring at the stack of paperwork. Marello hated all the paperwork that came with his job, but he knew it was necessary. As he started going over the closet stack, his looking glass went off. Without looking at the looking glass, he tapped it and answered it. "Commander Martelli speaking."

"Sir, its Ben Tennyson, we've got a level 5 emergency in Twilight Town," Ben said franticly. Marello quickly turned to Ben and asked what was happening. After Ben explained what was happening, Marello groaned. "Tennyson, you and Levin go to the oldest part of the temple and find the shrine. If what I think is happening, Aggregor may know the location of an old relic that's powers are intertwined with the land and the monks. Meanwhile I'll be to you in a few. I've got to contact someone that will be able to help."

Once given his instructions, Ben hung up and began his journey to the inner shrine. Marello began to use his magical arts to create a light blue orb of mana. "C_**ontactus,**__**Verdonna**_." The Orb began to shine as an image of Headmistress of the Magix Academy appeared. "Lady Verdonna, **its** Marello your little lost sheep student," Marello spoke softly. The old Anodite smiled as she turned to face the communication orb.

"Marello it's so nice to hear from you. Have you finally come to your senses and finally decided to become a full-fledged Anodite," she asked.

With a slight smile Marello replied, "I'm sorry sensei as much as I know it would mean to you for me to become a full Anodite, I have to turn you down once again." Verdonna sighed and shook her head.

"I don't see why not. Once you become a master you won't need to fly on those giant lizards."

"You know they're not lizards and I like flying on them. Besides you got your favorite student to become an Anodite why do you need me?"

"Yes you're right I was able to get my favorite student to become an Anodite, but I'd much rather have my _best_ student."

"Not happening sensei, besides I need to ask your help. The pleasantries will have to wait till later."

"Oh what do you need of this old lady?"

"I'm gonna need help fighting someone who's flooding Twilight Town with dark mana."

"I'm wrapping up my work now. I'll teleport to your office in a few."

TBC…

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**Alright I know I took way too long to finish this chapter but I was trying to figure out how I wanted it to go. So give your worst shot. I wanna know what you all think.**


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its incarnations.

**Hey everyone I know you're wondering what I'm doing, well I'm in my third semester of school and its driving me a little crazy. I want a major that suits me, but I'm not sure what it is. Oh well anyway here's the next chapter**

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_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 17_

Ben and Kevin quickly got up and started towards the exit of the arena, but surprisingly someone grabbed Ben's shoulder. When Ben turned around, he saw Hope. He let his guard down and asked if she needed something. Hope asked them was anything wrong sense they were practically running out the room. Ben shook his head no and told her that his boyfriend just remembered that they were scheduled for a dinner at some fancy restaurant and they didn't want to wait.

Hope gave them a disbelieving look and said ok. As the clone went to sit down, she sent a message to her creator and gave her a heads up if anyone did try to disturb her.

The young sorceress groaned as she felt two new energies walking her way. She looked down at the gem and saw that it was a now in the final stages of turning completely black. With a triumphant smirk plastered on her beautiful visage, she used began to test some of the powers that the gem granted her.

As the two Plumbers turned the corner, they came upon the protective doors that guarded the most ancient of treasures of the temple.

"So Kev, is it safe for us to just remove that huge block or is that thing booby-trapped," Ben asked as he eyed the large door.

"Hold ya horses and I'll check," Kevin countered as he began to draw on certain dragon ability's.

While many dragons shared a vast number of abilities, each race was granted a unique ability. The race that Kevin was drawing on at the moment had a particularly useful gift. The **A****nti****M****agicae** dragons were blessed to be able to see magic wavelengths that wrapped there way throughout the universe, and in greater detail they could identify people using this sight to produce the _aura_ of a person.

Once Kevin started using the ability, he unconsciously took a step back. What he saw was an interconnected spider web lacing itself over hundreds more made more complex than the ones below, but there was no way to be sure with every web intersecting one another. Before his head could start to process what he saw, Kevin let go of the image and shook his head furiously. When Ben asked what he saw, Kevin replied that there was too much for him to analyze all at once.

Ben frowned knowing that meant the door was heavily guarded and one wrong move would kill them. It took a few moments for Kevin's head to clear, and he once again tried to tackle the doors once more.

"Okay so I remember from Marello's classes on combating interlocking spells and enchantments were to look for a focal point. So if I can find that we'll be in business," Kevin said as he searched the all over the large door.

Hope frown seeing that the intruders were so close to her. Finally being able to connect with someone who may be able to stop the intruders, Hope told them to get into the shrine's outer doors quickly.

A few minutes passed before Ben or Kevin heard anything around them but when a voice called out to them, both boys jumped. Turning around, they saw a smiling Mako, relaxing the two teens.

"Hey Mako, did you come to help us find out what's happening to the temple," Ben asked with a smile.

"Why yes young Benjamin, I am here to find out what's happening, and I see you two are trying to break into the inner sanctum of my temple," the elder monk replied with a frown.

Ben started to defend him and Kevin, but Mako leapt into the air and poised into a flying kick. Ben reacted quickly and took hold of the monk's extended leg and hurled the monk at the closet wall. However the monk was able to recover and maneuvered himself so he could push off the wall and sailed Ben. Not use to seeing an opponent move this quickly, Ben was left open for the monks attack. As he closed his eyes and waited for the oncoming attack, he heard a pained groan coming off Ben's side. When he opened his eyes, Ben saw Mako laid out on the floor with Kevin standing in the path that Mako was once on. Kevin's face showed absolute fury, and it was all directed towards the monk.

Ben soon pulled himself back together and went over to Kevin. He glared slightly at Kevin and stated, "I'm not some damsel in distress Kevin! I can take a few blows and throw them right back."

Kevin turned to Ben a frowning at his lover. "Well, what was that I jus saw? You needed help and that's what I did. Stop getting so defensive when someone decides to help you."

Ben's glare withered down to a frown, but looked more like a pout if you asked Kevin. "Fine but you need to find that focal point on that door. We need to see what's making everyone so wonky."

By this time the monk was coming to and glared at the two lovers. "I've underestimated you two. I guess I'll have to use one of hidden techniques of my temple," Mako growled. He brought his hands together and began to chant. Ben didn't want to find out what the monk was planning so he charged at him.

Kevin meanwhile hesitated, but turned back around and began to look for the focal point of the enchantments.

Once Ben was in striking range, the brunet drew his arm back to strike, but was sent tumbling to the other side of the room when an unexpected fist hit him in the face. The punch didn't knock Ben out but as he rose back to his feet, he swore that punch undid something. Instead of seeing just one monk, Ben was staring at two monks. It wasn't until he heard both of them yell did Ben realize that both monks were real and ready to beat the crap out him.

Seeing that he was going to be over powered in moments, Ben drew on some of Kevin's strength. Qucikly he took a deep breath and waited for the two monks to get closer. While both monks were charging straight forward, they notice Ben take a deep breath, but when they decided to attack Ben from the side, it was too late. They got within Ben's minimum fire breathing range, Ben unleashed and swirling mass of fire. The flame engulfed both of the monks, much to Ben's relief.

The brunet turned around and started walking back to Kevin. However the young brunet never noticed that one of the monks survived the flaming attack with a barrier. The growl out Ben and pulled a handful of throwing knives. As he brought the knives into throwing position, it seemed a part of him started to break through the shroud that over took him. It called for him to stop and see that he was now going to commit an unforgivable crime with the doctrines of the temple. Within the scripts that the first monks created that no monk of the temple may take another's life within the walls of the temple unless the temple was under siege. This internal battle between his belief that he was raised on and the instructions he thought were those of the temples wore on the man's psyche so much that it caused him to pass out.

Upon hearing the thud, Ben turned and saw Mako sprawled out on the floor. Slightly nervous that the man may get back up, he jogged back to Kevin.

It seemed that it wasn't until Ben made it back to Kevin that the raven was able to pinpoint the focal point of the barrier. With that, Kevin focused on his flames and let them burn threw the ancient incantation. As the ancient spell vanished, the entire network of spells fell and allowed Kevin and Ben removed the giant stud. Just as they were about to push the doors to the open, a mana bolt came in-between the two and struck the door.

The two Plumbers turned around and saw Hope glaring at them. "Alright you two if you don't want to get hurt get away from that door and surrender or else," she said.

However before Ben could say anything to try and diffuse the situation, Kevin stated the classic death line, "Or else what." Ben face palmed himself as he shook his head. '_Ugh! Reminder to self to get Kevin to watch older movies with classic death sentences,_' Ben thought hoping they'd get to live. The dark sorceress didn't like the challenging tone of Kevin's voice, so she let her dark mana change her close into that of the real Hope.

"Sense you chose the hard way let me introduce myself the names Charmcaster. And I'll be your executor this evening," the silver haired woman said as she bowed at the waist. Not taking the young woman serious, Kevin charged at her. In his folly, Kevin forgot he was now vulnerable to magic, for which he and Ben paid the price. The young sorceress stand back up and raised her hand into the air. Quickly gathering dark mana, she unleashed a beam of it directly at Kevin and Ben. The beam force Kevin and Ben into the wall of the temple and threw it. They were pushed off cliff that the temple sat on and onto the beach just below.

The two groaned in pain and Ben punched Kevin in his aching chest. "Don't tease the powerful sorceress when your human," Ben yelled still aching from the fall.

"Ok, ok, I'll remember that next time, now get offa me," Kevin groaned as he started to push himself up. On their decent, Kevin was able to switch places with Ben and made sure he landed on his back.

Just as the two were almost to their feet, the sand a few feet away began to swirl and produced Charmcaster. "Well color me surprised. Most people wouldn't be able to survive a fall from that height. I'm kinda glad I wanted to play with you some more," Charmcaster said with a devious smile.

Ben was able to recover quicker and wasted no time showing the witch they were no pushovers. He quickly began spewing fireballs at the witch and ran at her. The flaming orbs forced the witch to defend herself with a barrier of mana. Using the orbs as cover, Ben got as close as he could and started attacking at the witch. However the witch was able to predict the attacks and dodged each one, but then another barrage of fireballs came plummeting towards her. She created another barrier to protect her from the magic, and this gave Ben a moment to strike.

With movements almost too fast to see, Ben kicked the young witch in the stomach and sent her gliding in the air and crashing into the sand. Ben turned around and saw Kevin release another barrage of fireballs and connect in the location where Charmcaster landed. Thinking the battle with Charmcaster was over, Ben started walking towards Kevin.

The sand and dust began to clear out and behind a barrier of mana stood and very livid Charmcaster. Her eyes began to glow once more but this time was different than before. Her eyes were glowing red as she cast one more spell. "**Vita!**"

Ben stopped in his tracks and turned his gaze back to Charmcaster. He stared as the sand around her began to swirl around her. Small ripples began to form in six different spot on the swirling sand and from the sand rose giant rock monsters.

'_Shit! Using my connection with Kevin's used up most of my energy. And this witch barely has a scratch on her,_' Ben thought as started running back Kevin. Once the rock monsters were completely out from the sand, Charmcaster sneered in Ben and Kevin's direction and instructed her pets to rip them apart.

Kevin looked down at Ben and quickly asked, "So you got a plan to stop those things? With the constant use different powers and our link, I've used up more energy than normal." Ben was mentally starting to panic as he saw the rocky monsters getting closer and closer. "I'm in the same boat Kev. I say we go down fighting," Ben reasoned. Kevin knew with as lil power as they had that was their only option so he lead the charge and started to ready himself for death.

As they charged at the stone monsters, a fierce roar rang in the air. Before Ben or Kevin could investigate, a crystal blue flame rained from the sky and landed on the stone monsters. Once the flame passed over the monsters, instead of melting, they were covered in thick and strong sheet of ice. Then something flew past Kevin, Ben, and the frozen stone monsters, at a tremendous speed that shattered the stone monsters.

"Heh, well that was kinda a letdown. I was hoping they'd put up more of a fight," a slightly arrogant, but familiar voice said.

With a smiling dawning his face Ben looked behind him to see his commander and grandmother behind him. He quickly ran over to them, with Kevin not too far behind. "Captain! Grandma, what are you doing here," Ben asked surprised to see either of them.

"Once you told me the situation, I figured something magical would be at work so that's why your grandmother's her. Me I came to get out of the office and get a workout," Marello explained.

Charmcaster started fuming as she created more stone monsters, but enchanting them to give the heroes a harder time.

It was once the new creature appeared, that Verdonna noticed Charmcaster. She scoffed at the use of the golems and told everyone where to attack to weaken the golems.

"well you all have your task, I'm off to perform mine," Verdonna said as she began to levitate and started rocketing towards the temple.

"Hey Cpt.? Where my grandma heading? The fights down here," Ben wondered.

"Ben you and Kevin are being distracted by a clone. The real culprit is still inside the temple changing the energy of the temple and this town. Your grandmother is probably the only person who can stop her. Our task is to get rid of the clone," Marello said just as Arc flew overhead and released another stream of icy fire.

Marello smiled and ran at the frozen creatures and punched threw a punch at the monster. When the blow connected, the stone monster shattered into dust. With one down Marello smirked and turned back to his former students. "**Revertere****navitas****, quæ perierat**!" Marello's eyes began to glow for a moment, and quickly went back to their original state. At first Ben and Kevin thought Marello's spell didn't do anything, until their fatigue ebbed away and their energy started to return.

"Alright boys, now the play fields even. Kevin and Ben I hope you two don't mind taking on these rock things. The witch is mine," Marello called out as he made a dash for Charmcaster.

Ben and Kevin knew that fighting Charmcaster would a much harder fight than what they were give so they just smiled and started having fun. Ben reached into his pocket and threw Kevin a few iron coins. Kevin grinned as he caught the coins and absorbed the properties of the metal into his skin. Once he was covered in iron, Kevin morphed his arms in blades and charged the stone monsters.

While the boys had their fun, Verdonna landed in the once pure temple. As she touched ground, she felt off balance. The dark mana quickly tried to overtake her, but Verdonna fought off the malicious energy. She knew as time passed, she'd become weaker and more susceptible to the darkness , so she ran as fast as she could to if she could find someone who would able to help her.

When she entered different portions of the temple, she ran into the possessed monks, who immediately attacked her. Verdonna normally would normally knock them away with a wave of mana, but knowing turning the temple back to normal would take a great deal of mana, she dropped into a fighting style that she had taught at the Magix Academy.

Over the years many Anodites and those could use magic, focused the majority of their energy on strengthen the abilities in magic, while leaving their bodies to take the abuse of focusing and regulating mana. This left many of them weak and vulnerable to fighters who were fast enough to get past their magic. In order to change this and give the users of magic a fighting chance, Verdonna and a many other magical leaders found several martial arts that would help develop the body, a style the magic users would feel comfortable using, and help promote harmony in magic.

The style they created was a mixer of Tai-Chi and Bājíquán. The style proved useful to Verdona at this moment as she was able to take down many of the monks quickly. She made it to the arena and what she saw was slightly surprising. Most of the monks who were participating in the ceremony were knocked out from fighting one another, but on an elevated platform, the head monk sat with his eyes closed and in a state up suspended animation.

This intrigued Verdona as she made her way over to him. Once she reached the eldest monk, she noticed that the man was indeed in a meditative state. Verdona smirked at the old man's cleverness. When the temple's aura began to change and it was too late to try and stop the intruder, the elder monk put himself into a state up suspended animation, so he would fall under the persuasion of the dark mana. Knowing he'd be her best ally, Verdona placed her hands to the elder man's temple and let a portion remaining mana flow over him. The exchanged would act a as barrier to protect the monk from the dark mana. Then she used what magic she knew and brought the older man back the world of living.

As the elder started to awaken, Verdona began asking him how he was feeling. The elder monk was able to give the sorceress a small smile and told her that he was fine. Verdona nodded and helped the older man to his feet. "I'm glad my magic is capable of shielding you from the darkness surrounding this place," Verdona said with a smile.

At the mention of the darkness filling the temple, the elder monk frowned. "Yes we must remove the one who's spreading this dreadful disease. My lady will you assist me in fighting whoever spreading this evil aura," the monk asked, bowing before Verdona.

Verdona told the monk she'd be more the pleased to help.

The elder monk made the suggestion to go to the shrine, because it was most likely was the darkness was being generated from. The pair quickly made their way through the hallway, and took out many of the younger monks. Upon reaching the shrine, the pair noticed the seals were removed from the doors but the doors were still closed. They pushed the door open and released a huge amount of dark mana. As the dark energy began to flow over the two of them, the barrier that protected the head monk began to weaken. This worried the elder monk knowing that this barrier was being powered by Verdona and its weakening was a reflecting on Verdona's condition. Mako then reached out to Verdona and began to chant an old spell to help Verdona recover some of her power and give her some type of protect against the dark mana.

The spell had an immediate effect and Verdona thanked the monk, and turned to see who was cast such a dark energy. She some idea who it may have been, but what she was shocked her. The sight of silver hair and a face that was so reminiscent of one of her favorite students almost brought Verdonna to tears. "Spellbinder," the old sorceress asked.

At the mention of that name, Charmcaster stopped her dark infusion and looked up to see Verdona. Charmcaster's growled at Verdona and called out, "You! How dare you speak my father's name! If it hadn't been for you, he'd still be here."

Verdona held her head down knowing that the child may have been right. Spellbinder was given a mission to defeat Adwaita, a powerful Anodite who turned to the dark arts. While Spellbinder was able to defeat the dark mystic, in incurred a mortal wound and died not long after returning home to his family.

"It is true if I went and face Adwaita, more than likely your father would still be alive. For that I am sorry, but do you think he'd approve of what you're doing," Verdona said solemnly.

This did nothing to temper Charmcaster's anger as she barred her teeth and lit her hands mana. "You dare say you're sorry! I took my father away from me! He and my uncle the only family I had. If you're truly sorry then you'll accept my challenge. I, Hope Charmcaster, challenge you Verdonna Tennyson, Anodite of the First Order, to a sorcerer's duel."

Verdonna shook her head knowing this was a bad idea, but if it was the only way to restore order to the land so be it. Verdonna looked at Charmcaster and accepted the challenge.

The two sorceresses' walked towards one another and lifted the left arm. Once they were in arm's length of one another, the clasped their open hands onto the others forearm. Each began to chant an ancient spell, and as the spell continued, and barrier started to form and filled the entire room. Once the barrier was set, they each went to a corner and prepared for the fight. Verdonna walked the corner where the head monk was standing watching, with worry written across his face.

"Verdonna, you know this was a foolish thing to do, the challenge may get you killed. The use of any magic is legal, and if this girl decided to use forbidden arts, you will not have enough mana to protect yourself."

Verdonna knew her chances cut in half after using so much to protect the elder monk from the darkness of the temple, but she hoped that Charmcaster was in the same position she was in. "I know, but I believe I'm strong enough to beat her," Verdona said confidently.

The monk didn't seem to share her conviction, so the he reached into his robe and took out a clothed item. He turned Verdona's hand up and placed the item into her palm. "Lady Verdonna, I know this item may not help you much, but if the young one uses a spell that is too much for you, use this item," the monk said with a smile.

Verdonna smiled at the old man and thought his worries were misplaced. A moment later a mysterious bell rang signaling for the two sorceresses' to come out swinging. The old monk stood back in the corner, as the barrier encased him with its power.

When the chime tolled, Charmcaster came out of the corner with all her mana. Verdonna easily dodged the waves of mana and stood were she was. Verdnna knew her mana was limited so show hoped the young sorceress would expend all of her mana. Mere moments after the bell chimed, Charmcaster attacked the seasoned sorceress with a barrage of mana bolts. Verdona easily dodged the attacks and countered with a much smaller barrage of her own.

The difference between the two combatants was substantial, and it was clear Verdonna had the advantage. With Charmcaster wasting her mana a huge attacks, Verdonna knew the fight wouldn't last much longer.

After nearly ten minutes of wasting mana, Charmcaster finally reached her limit. She was drained and weak, and with a simple spell, she knew Verdonna could end the fight. However she didn't she stared at the young sorceress with a glimpse of pity in her eyes, and it made Charmcaster furious.

'_How dare this witch show _**me**_ pity! I spent most of my life without my father because of her, and I losing the fight to her. There has to be some way I can turn this around,_' Hope thought as she scanned the room for something she could use. In an instant she saw what she needed. The barrier prevented them hurting anyone outside the barrier, but it didn't stop the flow of mana on the outside. She gave Verdonna a crooked smile and dashed to her left.

Verdonna was confused by the tactic until she turned and saw what Charmcaster was going for, the shrine. Verdonna quickly summoned her mana and tried to fly to the shrine before Charmcaster could reach it

Even using her powers, Verdonna wasn't fast enough to get to the shrine. Charmcaster grabbed the glowing gem with the shrine and began to absorb as much power as she could. As the gem's power filled Charmcaster's body, a black aura began to radiate from her. She smiled as her sights turned to the elder sorceress. She began to speak, but her voice was layered with a dark foreboding voice over her own.

"HA HA HA! You thought you really had this in the bag didn't you? Well guess what, you're no match for me now. Here let me show you!" Creating a new mana bolt, she let the energy slice through the air at break neck speed.

Verdonna's eyes widened and how much was behind the bold of mana, but she blocked the attack with a power mana shield. While the shield was barely holding together, Charmcaster struck again and broke through the shield with her second attack.

The elder sorceress was forced to stumble backwards from the sheer power of Charmcaster's attack. Charmcaster's evil grin as she began releasing beam after beam of dark mana. Each beam struck Verdona on a different part of her body and pushed her further to the wall. Once the old sorceress was pushed into a corner, Charmcaster began to focus the dark mana in her body into her palm.

Verdona, who was barely standing, took several deep breaths and leaned against the wall. '_I can't believe this is happening. I'm going to die at the hands of lil girl, who barely out of her diapers,'_ Verdona thought, and began to laugh. Never in her wildest dreams did she see that happen, However even if she was going to lose her life, Verdona refused to go down looking like a broken old women. After resting a few moments, Verdona pushed herself off the wall and looked directly at Charmcaster. She stood tall and gave off the aura of authority that came along with the title of Anodite Supreme.

Once all her mana was gathered, Charmcaster looked over at Verdona and what she saw made her blood boil. The sight of Verdona standing, even though it was apparent she had lost, with her head held high. "No, you don't get to act so full of pride now. I've won, I'm finally getting my revenge, and you will be broken and battered. Oh and so you know, once I'm done with you, your little family will be next on my list," Charmcaster yelled and she released all the dark mana she'd gathered.

The beam she released was the size of a car and once it made contact, it would completely vaporize Verdona. The old woman didn't move and the beam of pure mana ripped though the air. When the beam was arms length away from her body, Verdona closed her eyes and waited for everything to end…

TBC…


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its incarnations.

**Hey ok so this chapter is not finished just to let you all know, but I've taken why to long to post anything for you so I was hoping you'd like this much. I'll do my best to finish the chapter up and post it soon.**

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_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 18_

The beam of dark mana hit its target and created a large explosion and resulted in a cloud of dust. This cloud obscured everything in the general area, but with as much mana that was heading Verdona's way, there was no way she could have survived the attack.

Charmcaster smiled and began to cackle like a mad woman as she felt a wave a relief washes over her. However even with the knowledge that Verdona was no longer apart of the world of the living, Charmcaster still felt the pain of losing her beloved father. She knew from the beginning that this may happened but now that one nuisance was gone, her master's plan was that much closer to being realized.

The elder monk, who watched the battle behind the safety of the barrier, was shocked to see what had happened. He was sure the item he gave Verdona would could in handy. As he held his head down and began to chant a prayer for the fallen sorceress, a slight pulse of energy caught his attention. It was very familiar to him and it gave him hope that all was not lost.

The cloud began to clear away and Charmcaster's cackling began to die on her lips from the sight in front of her.

A shimmering light blanketed a figure Charmcaster knew all too well. The light began to dim and revealed Verdona, who was in slight shock. When the light was as small as a light bulb, it flew into Verdona's hand. The elder sorceress looked at the light and once the shine left, she held the item that the monk had given her at the start of the duel. The item in question was a vajra that seemed to have a power of its own. Neither of two sorceresses could figure out how one little item was able to block such an overwhelming amount of mana.

Charmcaster growled in rage and began releasing more bolts of dark mana. Acting on its own accord, the vajra dragged Verdona's arm into the direct path of each mana bolt and absorbed them.

"No! It's not possible! There should be no way that puny little trinket can absorb so much mana and not affect the holder," Charmcaster stated in anger. Verdona had to agree with the younger sorceress until the monk began to laugh.

"Young woman, it is obvious that you didn't do your homework when you decided to attack this sacred place. Allow me to educate you then. This temple was built to honor a mighty dragon that once called his place its home. That dragon protected the humans that settled in the valley that is now known as Twilight Town. One day a war broke out and the dragon, along with some of his brethren, fought against monsters that threatened our world. It wasn't until the first sorcerers and the dragon combined their powers were the monsters banished. However after the fight, the dragons and sorcerers gave their lives to keep the monsters from returning, and to keep the peace in the areas that each dragon called home, and item containing a piece of the dragon's soul was placed sent to each area. For our village it was the dragon statue, and the vajra that every head monk has carried. The energy from the statue has provided this with exceptional beauty, but in order to keep this ever present beauty, we monks must perform a cleansing ceremony to absorb any dark energy that manifests from the statue.

It is for that reason why Verdona is still standing. Your dark mana is nothing more than food now." The monk's explanation made it clear how Verdona survived, and it pissed Charmcaster off even more. When Charmcaster went to create a mana bolt with her own magic, she realized her mana was all but suspended. She cursed her luck and charged at Verdona to take her out the old fashioned way.

This provided to be a mistake on Charmcaster's part. Verdona easily swatted the girl's attacks away and pelted her with some of her own. Charmcaster was once again out classed, and this time she couldn't overcome it. In a last ditch effort gather the last of her mana and threw it at Verdona. The sphere was caught easily and shook her head. "I'm sorry dear, but you just lost this match. As the winner I claim my right to enforce my will on you. For now it is that you submit to me and allow me to take you as my prisoner," Verdona spoke softly. As the command left her lips, the barrier began to shimmer and started to shrink. It passed over Verdona it healed any wounds she contracted from the battle, and with the added bonus of wrapping around Charmcaster's wrists to create a pair of mystical hand cuffs.

During the time Verdona was exploring the temple and fighting Charmcaster, Marello, Ben, and Kevin were having a few problems of their own.

What seemed like a simple task was now becoming a momentous task, the rock monsters unfortunately kept Marello from coming close to their summoner. Ben and Kevin constantly were taking the stone creatures down but as one went down two came to replace them. While fighting the creatures Ben and Kevin only utilized dragon strength to minimize their energy use.

Once Marello realized it was useless to try and reach the sorceress, he made his way back to his subordinates.

"This is really getting annoying. With all these monsters she's making it impossible to get to her," Marello said as he used his dragon claws to cut through another stone creature.

Ben punched one in the face as he replied to his commander, "Well is there any way we can lessen their numbers and get to the source of all this magical nonsense?"

As Ken dodged another punch from one of the monsters and broke off its head with an uppercut he said, "Only thing I can think of is jumping over these rock heads and taking their heads off." It was then that an idea struck Ben that may get them out and this jam.

"Kevin, remind me to kiss you when we get out of this," Ben yelled. "But first let's make some elbow room. Marello can you make a nice thick wall of ice to hold these things back?"

The young commander nodded his head as he took a deep breath. Upon releasing his breathe and icy torrent of fire came out freeze ten of the stone monsters. Working fast, he unleashed another torrent of flames to create a wall of ice separating the heroes and monsters. The three huddled up knowing that the wall would only last a few minutes at best.

"Okay so we can't take these guys out without making more so why not stop destroying them but stop them from moving," Ben said. "Uh Ben how are we gonna do that? If we don't mash them, they'll smash us," Kevin retorted. Ben smirked at Kevin and started explaining his plan. After hearing it out, Marello shook his head in worry but it was all they had to go on.

"Fine Ben, we'll try this out but you're gonna have to fight our lil witch. It's gonna take more than Kevin's fire to keep these things at bay," Marello argued. When Kevin went to try and defend his honor, Ben gave him a look that kept the dragon from retorting.

At that moment, the barrier began to crack from the pounding it was taking from the rock monsters. Without a moment to spare, Kevin and Marello stood in front of Ben and began to gather as much energy as they could. When the wall finally gave and the rock monsters rushed them, Kevin and Marello unleashed a powerful torrent of ice. The torrent washed over the group of monsters that broke through the barrier and made its way to connect with all the other stone monsters. As the torrent of icy flames subsided, everyone took notice that now all the rock creatures where covered in a thick layer of ice.

Ben smiled as he took several steps back. HE then ran at full speed and Kevin and Marello, who had turned to the side and interlaced their hands. The brunet lifted his leg and places it into the pair of waiting hands and braised himself for what was to come next. Once he was firmly set, Kevin and Marello launched Ben overhead into the crowd of monsters. Making sure to watch his footing, Ben quickly pushed off the frozen monsters back, as he landed.

The young witch watched as her soldiers became popsicles, but did nothing to help them. She knew that their strength should be enough to break free, but after a moment or two and they made no move, she began to worry. She reached into her limited supply of mana and created mana strings to reconnect with her creations. However when the strings touched the ice, the ice began to cover the string of mana. As the ice raced back to the young clone, she cut off the string. Clutching her hand, she looked at the two men who created this devastating icy trap...

_TBC..._


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any of its incarnations.

**Hey everyone! I know your thinking you're taking to long to write this. So I'm gonna apologize. I have to really get in to mood to write, and if you stay tuned the next chapter will feature a new player in the game and some Bevin-y goodness. I'll try to get it done quicker.  
**

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_**Curious Dragons**_

_Chapter 19_

While she glared at the two men keeping her from her army, she realized the two who were holding her army at bay, they weren't the two she started fighting. However as she realized this, her chance to catch her other opponent was lost. Ben, who was able to make his way along the side of her frozen army, came running out from between them and started their counter attack. His fist came directly towards the young witch, but at the last second she was able to side step him. The young Tennyson recovered quickly and quickly started his throwing punches and kicks.

While Charmcaster had learned how to defend herself with martial arts, they were barely able to keep up with Ben.

After several minutes of being pushed further and further back, Charmcaster growled and unleashed a huge pulse of mana. Ben had seconds to call on a skill called dragon scale. As the name states, the user will develop the weaker version of a dragon's scales. When the pulse hit him, Ben was forced into the air and crashed about 10 yards from the clone.

By this time the clone began to feel the effects of using up so much mana. Her allotted amount was on the verge of being used up and she still needed to defeat the three warriors. '_Shit! I can't let myself be beaten by this filth. There has to be a way to end,_' she began to wonder. It was within a less than a moment when she realized what she had to do. Her last chance at redemption, but using it would cost the clone her life. She panted heavily looking up to see Ben getting back to his feet. The clone growled and decided that her sacrifice was worth the destruction of the three Plumbers.

With the remaining power, she withdrew the energy that fueled her golems. As the mana streamed back into her, Ben raced to stop her from whatever she was planning. However it was too late. The clone took hold of her brooch and activated its power.

Below her feet a seal appeared with shocked and stopped Ben in his tracks. The seal was exactly like the ones the dragon riders use which meant that this young witch wielded the power to fight with dragons as well. A moment later, a roar was heard coming from the portal, and a creature of blinding speed came flying out. The creature that came from the portal however was not what anyone had been expecting.

The creature looked more like a huge snake that was able to lift the top portion of its body. The snake had glowing red eyes and its body was covered in purple scale on top, but its underbelly was lined with white scales. Running along its back was a mane of course black hair, but the most outstanding features on this "dragon" was its wings. While most dragons have large scaly wings, this one had the wings of a bird.

Ben turned to Marello and Kevin and saw that the golems were falling apart. Ben ran back towards them but the dragon was faster. It spewed wave of acid in front of Ben, and slivered quickly in front of him keeping him from his partner. Kevin however ran towards Ben wanting to help. The enraged prince of dragons took off and readied himself for an iron fist to scale fight, but was taken down quickly. The snake like dragon sensed Kevin was coming from behind and used his tail to swat him with all the force he could.

When the tail came into contact with Kevin his iron armor cracked and was shattered. From there he was sent sailing back to where Marello was staring in horror. "Kevin as you can see that's not going to work. That dragon cannot be beaten with normal tactics. That thing is a _Vipera _dragon. They're rare breeds that don't normally commune with other dragons due to their many differences," Marello stated. Kevin groaned and told him he knew what the dragon was but wanted to know how to beat it. Marello was a loss to fight this dragon. Most of these dragons lived on a island jungle hundreds of miles away from there, and with their rarity fighting or trying to unify with one was impossible. However it seemed this one had found its kindred spirit in Charmcaster. With that filed away the young commander checked his mana levels and noticed he barely had anything left. He knew stopping the Vipera dragon would be much harder now, but with some luck they might be able to stop them.

As Marello started to formulate a plan, the clone decided to play her final card. She called her partner and started to perform the spell that would end this fight once and for all.

Marello noticed it before Ben, who had coming running back to them and fusing over Kevin.

The snake like dragon coiled around the clone slightly as Charmcaster took hold of the pendant on her dress. She began to focus her power into the pendant and activated the other amulet hanging around her partners' neck. "Dragon Soul Fusion!" she shouted.

Ben and Kevin turned to see a large magical glyph appear underneath the two and watched as the dragon seemed to evaporate. The smoky form of the viper dragon continued to coil around the clone. A moment later it entered Charmcaster's pendant. Now that power of dragon had entered her pendant, the clone placed it back on her jacket and waited.

The power of the dragon soul fusion soon took over as it bound the powers and bodies together. A blinding light consumed the two dark entities, and when it cleared a new horrifying monster took their place. A tall naga, with snakes for hair, and two large snakes for arms stood before them.

Kevin, Ben and Marello stared in awe at the monster's looks.

The naga began to laugh as she stared back at the trio and wasted no time in attacking. She slithered across the sand and raised her left arm and had it project a powerful acid at them.

With only seconds to dodge, Ben and Kevin rolled out of the way as the acid hit the ground and turned to sand into glass. Using her other arm, as a whip, she sent it directly at Marello. Marello however was able to dodge the attack and started making his way to Ben and Kevin. However the young sorceress had other plans. She quickly slithered across the sand and was able to cut off Marello's retreat. Acting quickly she used one of her arms and had it wrap around Marello. Marello withheld from screaming by biting his lip.

Seeing this as an opportunity, Kevin breathed and funnel of his burning flames. As Kevin unleashed his attack, Ben did the same but projected an icy torrent of flames.

When the first attack came into contact with naga, it seemed to have no affect on her, but when the icy torrent clashed against her scaly skin, the naga roared in pain. When she lost her focus, Marello wriggled his way out of her grasp and made it over to his students.

Ben was continuing to dish out his icy attack and was able to incase the naga in the ice. Once Marello got over to them, Ben looked the older man over and saw that their chances of winning were dropping. One of Marello's arms was broken, and his body was littered with cuts and bruises.

" Ben good job at stopping her, but do you think you can make the ice any colder," Marello asked after a few ragged breathed.

"No, that's as cold as I can make it. Why do you wanna make it colder?" questioned Ben.

"Yeah it's not even holding her now, I say you just blast her into oblivion," the dragon prince stated.

"That would be a waste, until her real body is beaten, she'll continue to come at us. But something I did notice was that when Ben hit her with the flaming ice, it broke her concentration and put her on the defensive. Now this is only a guess, but with her dragon being half dragon and half snake, she is vulnerable to icy just as reptiles are vulnerable to the cold," Marello explained as he began to use the last bit of his mana to mend his arm.

"Great you don't you just do that dragon soul fusion thingy and finish her off," Ben smiled at his stated but it faded as he saw the expression on Marello's face.

"I'm in no shape to perform the fusion you and Kevin have to do it."

"What?! But we weren't able to perform that thing once. How do you expect us to do it now?"

"Yeah, its not like the answers gonna be staring us in the face," Kevin stated.

Marello gave them a calm smile and explained, "There answer is staring me right in the face. Kevin draw you have to let yourself embrace all the qualities of the Glacier dragon. I think what our problem was that we were trying to get you to fuse with a black dragon, the predecessor to all other dragon types. This fusion would probably cause you to go insane so that may be why the fusion didn't work. So if we just use on particular dragon species it may just work."

Marello's theory was sound from Kevin's point of view when he thought about it, so he focused his power into the glacier dragon in him and let it take over. The change took no energy from Kevin, but he felt everything he knew about himself change as he took on the DNA of the glacier dragon. While the majority of his physical features took no changes, his hair began to fade. The once raven locks began to bleed to a white bluish color and his eye took on an electric blue hue.

Once he took on all the traits of the glacier dragon, the group heard the sound of something cracking. Turning quickly, they took notice that the naga's eyes were glowing red in rage. Even with the ice holding her in place, the clone began to use her superior strength to create cracks in the ice. Know there wasn't much time left Ben quickly went to activate his Dragianium summoner. This time when he revealed the armguard, the once dull gray metal that covered the band was now shifting to the same color as Ben's eyes.

A monotone version of Ben's voice came from the gauntlet and stated, "_Omnitrix online. System setup now initiated_." The top of the Omnitrix popped up and created 3D circle. The interactive screen then displayed how far the initiation sequence was progressing. Ben groaned know that his chance to attack the clone where put on hold.

The frozen clone noticed his Dragianium summoner and began to hiss. She renewed her attempt to break free and quickly broke free from her containment. With a loud roar, she opened the mouths of her snake like arms and began to prepare torrent of her specialized fire. "I won't give you the time you need to get your little toy up and running. I'll end this and make sure the temples dark energy destroys this peaceful city," the naga exclaimed.

Once she was ready Charmcaster's clone released an acidic flame that would destroy anything it touched. The flame easily closed the distance between Ben and itself and claimed its target.

Kevin and Marello were unable to do anything as the flame engulfed the young hero. Kevin felt his heart beginning to crack as he watched the flames wrap around Ben's body. Believing his love was lost he dropped to his knees and was ready to shed tears. However even as he felt his soul being torn a sunder something felt off about the situation. The young Tennyson should have been crying out in pain if the acidic flames had reached him. As he took a closer look he noticed that a green barrier was separated the flames and Ben.

Ben who thought he was done for noticed the lack of pain as well and when finally opened his eyes and saw the barrier, he looked down at his summoner. Sure enough the watch was projecting a green beam of energy. He smiled at his watch and told it thanks.

Hearing its owner express his gratitude, the watch responded in a true Ben fashion. "Self-preservation of this unit and its user are top priority in battle."

Ben smirked at the watch when he looked at the 3D display. The display read the Omnitrix's system setup and Ben decided to pay this bitch back for ruining his vacation.

Acting quickly Ben slammed his hand down on protruding portion of his summoner and felt a good sensation run along his body. In his mind he saw the icy form of Arc and then felt the chill of his power burn into his body and soul. As the energy of the _Algor Tempestas_ dragon began to merge with, he felt his body begin to morph.

As the transformation ended, the form Ben took was something he never expected. He was given a blue body with black and white spots on his arms and legs that resemble ice chunks, a light blue torso and large green eyes. He has three pointed fingers and a thumb on each hand and two toes on each foot and a third toe-like extension on his ankles.

Marello Knelt beside Kevin, and helped the dragon back on his feet. "Levin pull yourself together. Tennyson is fine. Once the transformation takes place Ben will instinctively be able to fight against his foe. He'll figure out his new skill in a moment trust me," Marello reassured.

Ben, who was looking himself over, turned back to the naga, who felt a shiver of fear run down her spine, and smirked. He then called out the creature's codename on instinct just as Marello stated.

"Big Chill."

The naga hissed at him once more and swung her arm at Big Chill. Ben, who still getting used to his new form, saw the arm coming at him, but didn't move from his place. As the arm came within centimeters from making contact his body vanished from sight. When the arm swung through the spot was Ben once was, much to Kevin and the naga's surprise, ice started forming. The cold caused the naga's body temperature to drop and started to weaken it. Ben soon reappeared with a smile stretched across his face.

"Well that was unexpected. I guess this new form has a few tricks I can use to beat you witch. Why don't you give up now and save us all the trouble of a fight," Ben stated cockily. Charmcaster hiss in response and slammed her hand against the remains of rock monsters. With a slight glance at her arms, she morphed them from snake heads into claws.

Ben groaned and prepared for the next assault. It didn't take long for the naga to begin her attack. She made swipes at Ben's torso with her newly formed claw. Ben let the swipe pass through him again, but this time he felt a great deal of pain exploded all over his body. He clutched his chest as he turned tangible again, and noticed that his chest had four jagged claw marks adorning him.

"Don't get cocky hero, my venom can melt anything even you when you're intangible. So don't think that little trick can save you now," was Charmcaster's rebuttal.

Ben glared for a moment and decided to show this chick was in control. Acting quickly, he opened his robes and spread them into a pair of wings. Jumping back, Ben got into the air and took a deep breath. After getting a deep breath, Ben unleashed an icy cold gust of wind. Not taking any chances now, Charmcaster ran her tail across the ground and kicked up a wall of sand and dirt. The icy wind met the cloud of dirt and created large chunks of ice. Cursing his luck Ben flew at Charmcaster and began pelting her with miniature icy gusts.

Just as Ben predicted, she either dodged the attack or used her tail to create another wall. What the naga didn't notice was that she was inching closer to Ben's real target.

The naga did all she could to keep from being frozen, but she started feeling the strain of her transformation. While most soul fusion have a max time of fifteen minutes, the two souls refrain from merging, Charmcaster had in this for almost twenty minutes pushing herself to the limit. The clone knew she didn't have to worry about the merging, but her partner may lose her soul if she kept this up too much longer.

The battle didn't last much longer, since Charmcaster's next wall was made of water. She panicked and tried to escape from the area, but Ben moved faster than she did. He quickly created another large icy wind and froze the water underneath and around her.

With the naga trapped permanently Ben smiled and flew back to Kevin and Marello. Both warriors were looking better than they were when Ben started fighting the clone.

"So did you two enjoy the show," the cocky brunet asked.

"Ben you should know not to toy with your enemy. You're lucky that she was almost as worn out as us. The battle would have ended much differently otherwise," Marello stated. He then reached into his pockets and pulled out a few iron coins. "Kevin, I need you absorb these coins and make me an iron chain. Charmcaster's clone won't remain in that form much longer and we need a way to keep her from using any mana she could still have."

Kevin released a dull sigh, while Ben pouted that his commander wasn't praising him like he had hoped.

Once the chains were forged, Marello went over to the block of ice and used a heat spell. The ice instantly turned into a puddle of water, and working as fast as lightning, Marello restrained the clone with the iron chains.

With all her power used up, the naga reverted back to a normal looking girl. While she did try to use her mana, she finally realized she was bound in iron, the only material known to negate most magicks.

The feeling of defeat washed over her, but instead looking overly gloomy, she released a heartbroken laugh. She began to mutter under her breath and looked at Marello and gave him a dark smile. "My master lost his key but it seems a new one is here to replace me."

As her last words were spoken, her body began to fade and vanish. While she faded her dark and heartbroken laugh filled the air.

The victors looked at one another confused by her statement but put no real thought behind them sense the clone was now gone.

Marello slumped onto the ground tired from all the fighting, but he never got a chance to rest as a whirled began to form a few away from his group.

The sand was kicked up in the whirl winds wake, and obscured the identity of the magick user. It wasn't until they heard a calm but teasing laugh did they release the tension they built up.

"Sorry boys didn't mean to scare you," the Anodite said holding a purple magical chain. At the end of said chain was none other than a downcast Charmcaster.

"I would have been here sooner, but the after effects of our little tussle caught up with me faster than I thought."

"Wait you beat her by yourself grandma," Ben asked with his jaw dropped. Said woman rolled her eyes and state she did. However looking at Marello and seeing all the damage done to the area, she deduced that they had a much more to deal with.

Shaking her head, the older magick user walked over to Marello and took his hand. "Boys, I hate to fight and run, but I should get our guest to the Cube, and have Marello checked over by David. So have fun and I'll see you when you get home." That was all the warning they got as Verdonna used her powers again transport away.

Ben stared at the spot where his grandmother was standing a moment ago and groaned. Kevin tentatively turned to his lover and asked what was wrong.

"Oh nothing. We just missed our chance to get teleported back to our room. Now we're gonna have to find a way but the cliff and back to your car," Ben explained.

As explanation sunk in, Kevin groaned as well. However a before any griping could be made, a trinket appeared above Ben's head. The brunet cautiously took hold of it and found it was a pendant with a note attached to it.

_Oh and before you start your whining Ben, here's at amulet that will transport you and Kevin and whatever else you brought with you back to your hotel. I know this fight took a lot out of you, so here's my way of saying I'm glad you're okay._

_~Love Grandma XOXO_

Ben smiled at the note and took Kevin's hand started thinking about their room and let the magick of the amulet do the rest…

_TBC…._

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**Okay this has been a long one to write with me being in school. Sorry for the delay again I hope you enjoyed. Thanks again for reading and reviewing that got me in the mood to write this one.**


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